Projected Changes in Precipitation Characteristics around Japan under the Global Warming

A coupled ocean-atmosphere climate model is used to depict changes in precipitation characteristics around Japan in the 21st century. A comparison between high (T106 atmosphere) and medium (T42) resolution versions for the present-day climate shows that the higher resolution version better represents not only the mean but also the frequency distribution of precipitation. The climate projection for the 21st century by the high resolution version shows that mean precipitation increases more than 10% in 100 years from the present, especially in warm seasons. Increases in frequencies of non-precipitating and heavy (>= 30 mm day(-1)) rainfall days and decrease in relatively weak (1-20 mm day(-1)) rainfall days are significant.