The Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan (JMSJ) continues to grow and develop into a fully featured journal serving the global meteorological research community. Over the past year, the Meteorological Society of Japan (MSJ) and the JMSJ Editorial Committee have worked to improve the technology underlying the journal and to enhance the journal's content. These changes benefit our authors and readers by increasing the availability, accessibility, and reach of the journal's articles.
Changes to the HTML version of JMSJ articles
Previously, only the PDF versions of JMSJ articles were published on the journal's J-STAGE website (https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/jmsj). From 2020, an HTML version of each article will also be published online. This makes it easier to read JMSJ on smartphones and tablets, improves search functionality, and helps future-proof the journal to the constant innovations in scholarly publishing. The HTML version has been achieved by adopting the Extensible Markup Language (XML), the global standard for electronic journals. The publication of journals in XML format is a requirement for compliance with the Europe-based Plan S initiative (https://www.coalition-s.org/), and meets world's best practice for electronic journals.
Changes to the Article Processing Charge
One consequence of the adoption of XML/HTML is the increased costs of publishing JMSJ. The journal is financially supported by the Article Processing Charge (APC), so the APC will be adjusted for all manuscripts submitted from January 1, 2020. For more details, please refer to the JMSJ website (https://jmsj.metsoc.jp/instructions.html).
Changes to the requirement for a Japanese abstract
For all JMSJ papers, a Japanese abstract has been published as supplementary material on the JMSJ J-STAGE website and in Tenki, the MSJ's monthly bulletin. From 2020, a Japanese abstract will be displayed in the Japanese version of the J-STAGE website for only articles that include a Japanese author or co-author. After acceptance of the manuscript, the authors that include a Japanese author or co-author are requested to submit a separate page presenting Japanese translations of the article title, author names, affiliations, and Abstract, which must correspond with the English versions. For all other articles, a JMSJ Editor will provide a Japanese translation of the title after article acceptance.
JMSJ Award 2019, most accessed papers in 2019, invited review articles, and special editions
In 2019, the JMSJ Editorial Committee was honored to present the JMSJ Award to the authors of four articles that present high-quality work with novel findings on important topics:
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Ose (2019): global warming experiments using three different 60 km mesh atmospheric global circulation models are studied to characterize future changes in monthly East Asian precipitation for June to August. Wetting and drying effects due to changes in mean vertical motion are related adiabatically to the projected modification of 500 hPa horizontal atmospheric circulation, which is characterized by two cyclonic circulation anomalies extending over the eastern Eurasian Continent and the western North Pacific Ocean for each month.
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Liu et al. (2019): The northward shift of the western North Pacific Subtropical High (WNPSH) in July 2018 broke the historical record since 1958. The authors attribute the extreme WNPSH anomaly to the strongest positive tri-pole pattern of sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTA) in the North Atlantic. This SSTA could induce an eastward-propagating wave-train over the Eurasian Continent and enhance the atmospheric diabatic heating over the eastern Tibetan Plateau to cause the extreme northward shift of the WNPSH, finally leading to the extreme heat waves and casualties across Northeast Asia, especially over southern Japan.
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Yukimoto et al. (2019): A new earth system model, Meteorological Research Institute Earth System Model version 2.0 (MRI-ESM 2.0), was developed at the Meteorological Research Institute. As a result of enhancement of the atmospheric vertical resolution and various improvements in the cloud scheme, the aerosol model, and the ocean model, the performance in present-day climate reproduction has significantly improved in many aspects compared to the former model, MRI-CGCM3. Root mean square error of the shortwave radiation distribution at the top of the atmosphere reduced by about 42 % compared to MRI-CGCM3. Performance is also improved in expressing climate change and variability. For example, the observed global mean surface temperature change from the mid-19th century to the present is reproduced well. The stratospheric quasibiennial oscillation is now represented realistically.
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Tsuyuki (2019): A multi-scale data assimilation method for the ensemble Kalman filter is proposed and its performance is demonstrated using a shallow water model. The method is based on the conservation and invertibility of potential vorticity. It suppresses spurious error correlations between the balanced and unbalanced parts of dynamical state variables and makes it possible to appropriately address the balance issue of covariance localization.
The two most accessed papers in 2019 were Kobayashi et al. (2015), which describes the general specifications and basic characteristics of the JRA-55 Reanalysis, and Bessho et al. (2016), which provides a comprehensive introduction of the new Himawari-8/9 geostationary meteorological satellites.
Another article of note is the invited review article by Murakami (2019), which presents an overview of observation studies by instrumented aircraft on the inner structures of snow clouds over the Sea of Japan.
Several special issues were organized and published in 2019. The Special Edition on Tropical Cyclones in 2015–2016, guest edited by Prof. Hironori Fudeyasu, was completed in 2019. The Special Edition on Extreme Rainfall Events in 2017 and 2018 is currently being edited by Prof. Tetsuya Takemi. Submissions are closed, and the manuscripts are under review. Three more special issues have been announced and are currently welcoming manuscript submissions. They are the Special Edition on DYAMOND: The DYnamics of the Atmospheric general circulation Modeled On Non-hydrostatic Domains, guest edited by Prof. Bjorn Stevens; the Special Edition on Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM): 5th Anniversary, guest edited by Prof. Shoichi Shige; and the Special Edition on Years of the Maritime Continent (YMC), guest edited by Dr. Kunio Yoneyama. The special editions on extreme rainfall events in 2017 and 2018 and on YMC are being jointly organized by JMSJ and SOLA (MSJ's international letters journal), and authors of articles in these special editions will receive a discount on the APC. We thank the Guest Editors for their valuable contributions.
On behalf of the JMSJ Editorial Committee, I would like to thank the authors, reviewers and readers who contributed to the journal's success in 2019. We look forward to your continued support in 2020.
Masaki Satoh
Chief Editor, JMSJ
References
- Bessho, K., K. Date, M. Hayashi, A. Ikeda, T. Imai, H. Inoue, Y. Kumagai, T. Miyakawa, H. Murata, T. Ohno, A. Okuyama, R. Oyama, Y. Sasaki, Y. Shimazu, K. Shimoji, Y. Sumida, M. Suzuki, H. Taniguchi, H. Tsuchiyama, D. Uesawa, H. Yokota, and R. Yoshida, 2016: An introduction to Himawari-8/9 – Japan's newgeneration geostationary meteorological satellites. J. Meteor. Soc. Japan, 94, 151-183.
- Kobayashi, S., Y. Ota, Y. Harada, A. Ebita, M. Moriya, H. Onoda, K. Onogi, H. Kamahori, C. Kobayashi, H. Endo, K. Miyaoka, and K. Takahashi, 2015: The JRA-55 Reanalysis: General specifications and basic characteristics. J. Meteor. Soc. Japan, 93, 5-48.
- Liu, B., C. Zhu, J. Su, S. Ma, and K. Xu, 2019: Recordbreaking northward shift of the western North Pacific Subtropical High in July 2018. J. Meteor. Soc. Japan, 97, 913-925.
- Murakami, M., 2019: Inner structures of snow clouds over the Sea of Japan observed by instrumented aircraft: A review. J. Meteor. Soc. Japan, 97, 5-38.
- Ose, T., 2019: Characteristics of future changes in summertime East Asian monthly precipitation in MRI-AGCM global warming experiments. J. Meteor. Soc. Japan, 97, 317-335.
- Tsuyuki, T., 2019: Ensemble Kalman filtering based on potential vorticity for atmospheric multi-scale data assimilation. J. Meteor. Soc. Japan, 97, 1191-1210.
- Yukimoto, S., H. Kawai, T. Koshiro, N. Oshima, K. Yoshida, S. Urakawa, H. Tsujino, M. Deushi, T. Tanaka, M. Hosaka, S. Yabu, H. Yoshimura, E. Shindo, R. Mizuta, A. Obata, Y. Adachi, and M. Ishii, 2019: The Meteorological Research Institute Earth System Model version 2.0, MRI-ESM2.0: Description and basic evaluation of the physical component. J. Meteor. Soc. Japan, 97, 931-965.
