2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Long-term changes in seasonally-accumulated snowfall depth and in the frequency of heavy snowfall event on the Sea of Japan side of Japan over the past 55-year period
| Project/Area Number |
16K16349
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Research Field |
Geography
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| Research Institution | Tokyo Metropolitan University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Research Collaborator |
Kamizawa Nozomi
Hoshi Ryousuke
Yamazaki Takuya
Ninomiya Daiki
Abiko Satoru
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| Project Period (FY) |
2016-04-01 – 2019-03-31
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| Keywords | 豪雪 / 気候変動 / 地球温暖化 / アジアモンスーン / 降雪 / 積雪 / 日本海側 / 気象 |
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
This study investigated the long-term changes in seasonally-accumulated snowfall depth and in the frequency of heavy snowfall event on the Sea of Japan side of Japan over 51 winter seasons from 1962 to 2012. We focused on the changes in the ratio of snowfall day to total precipitation day R(s/p) and total precipitation, which are like to be associated with the changes in snowfall depth. It was found that the long-term changes in R(s/p) were observed on most of observation stations of Japanese Meteorological Agency, which can be explained by the increase in surface air temperature However, the changes in precipitation modified the long-term changes in snowfall, which likely complicated the long-term changes in snowfall. In addition, the result of the recent increase in heavy snowfall events was not obtained so far. Moreover, the definition of heavy snowfall should be reconsidered for further discussions because the term "heavy snowfall" is used in many ways.
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| Free Research Field |
気象学・気候学・気候システム学
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| Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements |
本研究の学術的な意義は、既存のデータの統計的な解析により、日本海側の雪の平均的な減少傾向の地域性を明らかにし、豪雪の増加が今のところは見られていないことを示した点にある。また、雪の減少傾向に地域性には、総降水量の変動がある程度重要であることも示した。社会的な意義としては、日本海側は、少子高齢化・過疎化などの日本の社会問題が強く見られる地域のため、自然科学的な視点からは豪雪は増加していないものの、「社会問題として豪雪」はより重要な問題になっている可能性を提起したことが挙げられる。
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