Photo/Illutration A photo taken from The Asahi Shimbun’s corporate plane shows the Aurora ice-breaking ship cutting a path through drift ice off Abashiri, Hokkaido, on Feb. 4. (Kazuyoshi Sako)

SAPPORO—Winter waves in the Sea of Okhotsk have strengthened by 12 to 15 percent on average per decade since the 1980s as global warming has shrunk flow-blocking sea ice and drift ice, data showed.

The study was conducted by the Sapporo-based Civil Engineering Research Institute for Cold Region (CERI), part of the Public Works Research Institute.

The expected continuing decrease in sea ice and drift ice will make it necessary to more accurately provide long-term forecasts for the waves and possible damage caused by high waves.

Shinsuke Iwasaki, a researcher of CERI’s Port and Coastal Research Team, used three types of observation data provided from Japan, the United States and Europe to run simulations of waves over the past 40 years in the Sea of Okhotsk from December to February.

Sea ice and drift ice can naturally dampen the force of waves. But the shrinking ice could also possibly reduce sea-level pressure, resulting in stronger surface winds in surrounding areas, according to Iwasaki.

“The Sea of Okhotsk is a rare ocean area because it has ice and it is difficult to forecast waves,” Iwasaki said. “There have been few studies there, and I want to continue the research from the standpoint of disaster prevention.”

The research paper was posted on an online magazine published by Springer Nature, an academic publishing company.

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