IPRC involved in research on lifecycles of tropical
cyclonesUniversity of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa International Pacific
Research Center The initial results of the first computer model
that simulates the global atmosphere with a detailed
representation of individual clouds have been analyzed by a team
of scientists at the International Pacific Research Center
(IPRC) at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Japan-Agency for
Marine Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), and the
University of Tokyo. The model, called the Nonhydrostatic
ICosahedral Atmospheric Model (NICAM), was developed for the
supercomputer Earth Simulator at JAMSTEC. Given the atmospheric
conditions that were present 1-2 weeks before the observed
cyclones formed, the model successfully reproduced the birth of
two real tropical cyclones that formed in the Indian Ocean in
December 2006 and January 2007. The model captured the timing
and location of the formation of the observed cyclones as well
as their paths and overall evolution. "We attribute the suc