Jun 29 2021

Assistant Professor NIIYA Hirofumi of the Niigata University Institute for Research Promotion Center for Transdisciplinary Research received the Snow and Ice Encouragement Award from the Hokushin-etsu Branch of the Japanese Society of Snow and Ice. The award ceremony was held at the 2021 Hokushin-etsu Branch Convention on Saturday, June 5, 2021.

The Snow and Ice Encouragement Award is given to those who have made remarkable achievements in the study of glaciology and who are expected to continue with further achievements.

The title of the award is "Elucidation of Dynamics of Blowing Snow, Avalanches and Mudflows Based on Snow Particle Behavior." Assistant Professor NIIYA succeeded in developing a new numerical model combining turbulence calculation and particle trajectory calculation for blowing snow with severe spatiotemporal fluctuations in order to predict and mitigate intensifying natural disasters. He also succeeded in constructing a numerical model that reproduces the motion form and internal structure of the avalanches from the snow particle movement. Furthermore, he started an experiment on a snow-melting lahar that causes enormous damage as a complex volcanic-snow-ice disaster, and experimentally clarified the effect of snow particles on the lahar mobility.

The research was highly evaluated due to the novel viewpoint of clarifying the snow and ice phenomenon based on the snow particle behavior. It is also highly expected that the research will achieve the further development of study on lahars, which is difficult to observe in the field.