Abstract
To investigate future changes in snow cover and snowfall over mountainous areas in central Japan, we conducted regional climate projections using a high-resolution non-hydrostatic regional climate model (NHRCM) with 5 km and 1 km grid spacings. Boundary conditions are derived from the database for Policy Decision making for Future climate change (d4PDF) 20 km regional climate projections (d4PDF20). The d4PDF20 assumes two future climates when global mean surface air temperatures are approximately 2 K and 4 K warmer than in the preindustrial period. Experiments with 5 km grid spacing are conducted by NHRCM for 372 years in d4PDF20 in each climate. Experiments with 1 km grid spacing are performed focusing on 5 years with heavy, median, and light snow cover of mountainous areas in each climate. In the years with heavy snow cover in 2 K and 4 K warming climates, snowfall is enhanced from late December to February at more than 2000 m above sea level (mASL) in the northern parts of Japan’s Northern Alps, resulting in heavy snow cover comparable to that in the present climate. Heavy daily snowfall remarkably increases due to global warming in the years with heavy snow cover. At low elevations below 500 mASL, snowfall decreases in all ranges of snowfall intensity in the 4 K warming climate, while the frequency of heavy daily snowfall increases in the 2 K warming climate. Precipitation is enhanced around the Japan-Sea Polar-airmass Convergence Zone and the mountainous area facing the Sea of Japan, resulting in strengthened heavy snowfall at high elevations where the winter mean temperature is approximately − 10 °C in the present climate. On the other hand, remarkable reductions in snow cover and snowfall are projected in years with light snow cover. Our results indicate that global warming causes heavy and light mid-winter snowfalls at high elevations of Japan’s Northern Alps that are more extreme than those in the present climate.Graphical abstract
Highlights
Japan’s Northern Alps, located in central Japan, are known as one of the deepest snow-cover regions in the world (Fig. 1)
We focus on the northern part of Japan’s Northern Alps, where the complex topography is well resolved by the NHRCM01 (Fig. 1d), and the enormous snow cover is calculated in our model domain
We conducted dynamical downscaling using non-hydrostatic regional climate model (NHRCM) with 1 km and 5 km grid spacing from d4PDF 20 km NHRCM and investigated future changes in snowfall and snow cover over the high mountainous areas of central Japan
Summary
Japan’s Northern Alps, located in central Japan, are known as one of the deepest snow-cover regions in the world (Fig. 1). The cold and dry northwesterly from the Eurasian continent, called the East Asian Winter Monsoon, obtains plenty of moisture from the relatively warm Sea of Japan, causing snowfall over the Sea of. The topographic updraft enhances the snowfall over Japan’s Northern Alps facing the Sea of Japan. In Japan’s Northern Alps, at Murododaira (Fig. 1d), whose altitude is 2450 m above sea level (mASL), the snow depth and snow water equivalent (SWE) are about 600 cm and 3000 mm, respectively, in early spring (Aoki and Watanabe 2009; Kawase et al 2015, 2018b, 2019a). Enormous SWEs in the mountainous areas are available as water resources in the spring and early summer in Japan.
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