Outline

Faculty Members

AOKI Shohei

(Lecturer/Assistant Professor/Division of Transdisciplinary Sciences)

Department of Complexity Science and Engineering/Astrobiology Module/Planetary atmosphere, Planetary exploration

Career Summary

2014 Ph.D. Tohoku University (Japan). 2014-2016 Postdoctoral Researcher, Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali, Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (Italy). 2016-2019 Postdoctoral Researcher, Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (Belgium). 2019-2021 FNRS FRS Postdoctoral Researcher, Université de Liège (Belgium). 2021-2022 JAXA Aerospace Project Research Associate, Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Japan). 2022- Lecturer, Department of Complexity Science and Engineering, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo.

Research Activities

Involved projects 2021~2022: International Mars Ice Mapper mission / Measurements-Definition-Team 2018~: JAXA MMX MIRS / Co-investigator 2018~: JAXA MMX / Mars Sub-Science-Team 2015~: ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter NOMAD / Co-investigator 2010~: Mars Express PFS / Co-investigator 2020: IRTF telescope Mars observations / Principle-investigator 2019: IRTF telescope Venus observation / Principle-investigator 2018: ALMA telescope Mars observations / Principle-investigator 2016, 2017, 2018: SOFIA telescope Mars observations / Principle-investigator 2012, 2014: Subaru telescope Mars observations / Principle-investigator 2015~2018: EU Horizon2020 project “Understanding Planet Mars With Advanced Remote-sensing Datasets and Synergistic Studies (UPWARDS)” 2014~2016: EU FP7 project “Collaborative Rover and Interactive Virtual Environments (CROSS-DRIVE)” 2012~2015: ESA project “Synergetic SWIR and IR retrievals of near-surface concentrations of CH4 and CO for Eartha and Planetary atmospheres (SIROCCO)”

Literature

https://researchmap.jp/shoheia/published_papers

Messages to Students

How does a habitable planetary climate make and sustain? - The ultimate goal of our research is to answer such a question. Our planet, the Earth, has been investigated from this point of view for many decades. On the other hand, in this century, Earth-like planets have been discovered outside of our solar system. In the next decades, it will be required to study atmosphere of terrestrial planets as a common system. However, it is still challenging to directly observe atmosphere of the Earth-like exo-planets. Thus, it is important to investigate the atmosphere of Mars and Venus that are "Earth-like planets" in our solar system, and to understand their environment and evolution. It has been proposed hat Mars (and probably Venus) once had a large amount of liquid water on the surface like the current Earth. However, the current Venus has extremely warm climate with thick CO2 atmosphere, and Mars is a cold and dry planet. Where/how has a large amount of water gone? To answer such a question is one of the major science goals of recent Mars/Venus missions. I have studied the atmosphere of Mars with European Mars missions such as Mars Express and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, and ground-based telescope observations such as Subaru, SOFIA, ALMA, and IRTF. To improve our observational knowledge of water evolution on Mars and Venus, I analyze new data from the Mars orbiters with NASA/ESA colleagues and perform new observations with ground-based telescopes. One of the interesting aspects of the planetary science is that there are a lot opportunities to work with many people as an international team. Please contact us if you would like to join.

URL

https://www.astrobio.k.u-tokyo.ac.jp/imamura/