This study investigated rainfall trends and their associations with tropical cyclones (TCs) during the period of 1979-2019, using TC best-track data from the Regional Specialized Meteorological Center Tokyo - Typhoon Center and daily rainfall data from 138 meteorological stations in Vietnam. The radius of influence of TCs on local rainfall was limited to 500 km from TC centers. The average annual number of TCs affecting Vietnam has decreased slightly in the last two decades compared to previous decades. The ratio of TC-induced rainfall to total rainfall attained the highest value of 37.3% in the central region, in July. The temporal distribution of TC-induced rainfall coincided with the frequency of TCs, with an active period from June to November. During 1979-2019, the non-TC rainfall was the main contributor to the change in total rainfall, especially in relation to the decline in the north and the increase in the coastal South Central region. The rainfall trend during the entire period was principally explained by the interdecadal shift in the late 1990s. Rainfall intensity and the number of heavy rainfall days were intensified for total rainfall and non-TC rainfall, indicating that TCs contributed minimally to the changes of extreme rainfall events during 1979-2019.

To discuss the feasibility of the Himawari follow-on program, impacts of a hyperspectral sounder on a geostationary satellite (GeoHSS) is assessed using an observing system simulation experiment. Hypothetical GeoHSS observations are simulated by using an accurate reanalysis dataset for a heavy rainfall event in western Japan in 2018. The global data assimilation experiment demonstrates that the assimilation of clear-sky radiances of the GeoHSS improves the forecasts of the representative meteorological field and slightly reduces the typhoon position error. The regional data assimilation experiment shows that assimilating temperature and relative humidity profiles derived from the GeoHSS improves the heavy rainfall in the Chugoku region of western Japan as a result of enhanced southwesterly moisture flow off the northwestern coast of the Kyushu Island. These results suggest that the GeoHSS provides valuable information on frequently available vertically resolved temperature and humidity and thus improves the forecasts of severe events.

Although wetlands are the largest natural source of atmospheric methane, the amount and variability of methane emissions from wetlands still have large uncertainty. We investigated the local growth rate of the column-averaged methane dry air mole fraction (XCH₄) in Siberia where wetlands are widely abundant using 11-year (2009-2019) Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT) data. While the mean growth rate during the summer from the GOSAT observations is 7.2 ppb yr⁻¹ globally, that in West Siberia is 8.4 ppb yr⁻¹. In particular, the growth rates in West Siberia after 2013 is much larger in July and August than in the other months. Moreover, the growth of XCH₄ in West Siberia appears to larger than in the other boreal areas. These results imply that methane emissions from wetlands in West Siberia increased during the summer in recent several years.