Akio Arakawa (July 20, 1927 – March 21, 2021) was a

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese-born American climate scientist. He was an Emeritus Professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

Early life and achievements

Arakawa was the youngest of three sons. Living through

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

in Japan, he recalled his two older brothers served in the Japanese military without incident, while he was drafted to work as a fireman part-time while finishing high school. He entered the

University of Tokyo The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several pre-westernisation era ins ...

in 1947, and spent three years majoring in physics. After graduating in 1950, he applied for one of the few jobs available for physics graduates, with the

Japan Meteorological Agency The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA; ''気象庁, Kishō-chō'') is a division of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism dedicated to the Scientific, scientific observation and research of natural phenomena. Headquartered ...

. The agency stationed him on a weather ship to gain experience, and after working in that area for a year and a half, he sought another role in the agency, and was able to gain a position in the forecast research division. In the 1950s, Arakawa developed mathematics that "permitted the use of a coarser grid" to reduce the computational time needed to estimate climate changes from air sampling data. During this time, Arakawa consulted on the early

Goddard Institute for Space Studies The Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) is a laboratory in the Earth Sciences Division of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center affiliated with the Columbia University Earth Institute. The institute is located at Columbia University in Ne ...

(GISS) weather model, later taken up and further advanced by meteorologist Dr.

James Hansen James Edward Hansen (born March 29, 1941) is an American climatologist. He is an adjunct professor directing the Program on Climate Science, Awareness and Solutions of the The Earth Institute, Earth Institute at Columbia University. He is best ...

Recognition and later life

In 1977, Arakawa was awarded the

Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal The Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal is the highest award for atmospheric science of the American Meteorological Society. It is presented to individual scientists, who receive a medal. Named in honor of meteorology and oceanography pioneer Carl- ...

, the highest award in the field of atmospheric science, from the

American Meteorological Society The American Meteorological Society (AMS) is a scientific and professional organization in the United States promoting and disseminating information about the atmospheric, oceanic, and hydrologic sciences. Its mission is to advance the atmosph ...

, for his work on "mathematical models of the atmosphere and in numerical methods of weather prediction"."Research Medal Awarded", ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'',

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, 3 July 1977, p. 6. In 2010, he received the

Vilhelm Bjerknes Medal The Vilhelm Bjerknes Medal is an award presented by the European Geosciences Union (and its predecessor, the European Geophysical Society) that recognizes "distinguished research in atmospheric sciences". It was first awarded in 1997, to Brian Hosk ...

from the

European Geosciences Union The European Geosciences Union (EGU) is a non-profit international union in the fields of Earth, planetary, and space sciences whose vision is to "realise a sustainable and just future for humanity and for the planet". The organisation has headq ...

. Arakawa was one of the nine scientists who wrote the Charney report in 1979, which predicted a

global warming Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...

-related temperature rise over the next century, and a

climate sensitivity Climate sensitivity is a key measure in climate science and describes how much Earth's surface will warm for a doubling in the atmospheric carbon dioxide () concentration. Its formal definition is: "The change in the surface temperature in resp ...

of 3°C.

References

External links

Oral History interview transcript for Akio Arakawa on 17 July 1997, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives - Session I

Oral History interview transcript for Akio Arakawa on 18 July 1997, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives - Session II
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arakawa, Akio 1927 births 2021 deaths Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal recipients University of Tokyo alumni University of California, Los Angeles faculty Japanese emigrants to the United States