Japan Geoscience Union Meeting 2022

Presentation information

[J] Oral

A (Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Sciences ) » A-CC Cryospheric Sciences & Cold District Environment

[A-CC28] Glaciology

Thu. May 26, 2022 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM 301B (International Conference Hall, Makuhari Messe)

convener:Keiko Konya(Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology), convener:Ishikawa Mamoru(Hokkaido University), Sojiro Sunako(National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience), convener:Kzutaka Tateyama(National University Corporation Kitami Institute of Technology), Chairperson:Kzutaka Tateyama(National University Corporation Kitami Institute of Technology)


3:45 PM - 4:15 PM

[ACC28-06] Estimation system of wind profile and snowdrift distribution in a ski destination and its comparison between field observation

★Invited Papers

*Takahiro Tanabe1, Yoichi Ito1, Evgeny Isenko2, Yoshihiko Saito2, Koichi Nishimura2, Satoru Yamaguchi1 (1.National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience, 2.Yukiken Snow-eaters Co. Ltd.)

Keywords:Blowing snow, Snowdrift, Skiing, Numerical system

Snow is one of tourism resources at snow region in Japan. In these leisure facilities, safety management is the most important task, for examples, avalanche protections and controls for skiing and snowboarding.
Niseko area is famous for its quality powder snow in domestically and internationally, therefore, many tourists come for the backcountry skiing and snowboarding. In Niseko, the backcountry skiing/snowboarding have been allowed so far as obeying "Niseko rules", which are implemented in order to prevent avalanche accidents in the backcountry areas. In addition, for the same purpose, The Niseko Avalanche Information has been reported every early morning during winter-season from the Niseko Avalanche Institute. The Niseko Avalanche Information is long running area's official information and estimates the hazard level using systems and methods developed by the institute.
Our motivation is to establish a method evaluating an avalanche risk based on the accumulated knowledge. The Niseko Avalanche Information often refers the formation and transition of snowdrift to evaluate the avalanche hazards, that is, developments of snowdrift on ridges relate to avalanche risk. Based on these knowledges, we have developed a system to estimate "When/Where/How much do the snowdrift develop?".
In this presentation, we report the estimation system and comparison between the field observation and the system.