The Digitized Kobe Collection, Phase I: Historical Surface Marine Meteorological Observationsin the Archive of the Japan Meteorological Agency

Abstract

Japanese historical marine meteorological observations have been archived at the Kobe Marine Observatory of the Japan Meteorological Agency. Considering the importance of making historical data available, digitization projects subsidized by the Nippon Foundation have been carried out since 1995. More than one million of the records were digitized in 1995 and 1996, and the digitized records were quality checked in 1997. Now they are on a CD-ROM that is to be distributed to the interested organizations and researchers. In the present paper, an outline of the Kobe Collection, the recent digitization projects, and characteristics of the digitized data are described. Results of preliminary analysis on the regime shift of sea surface temperature found in the 1940s and on decadal oscillations in the first half of this century are also described.