The Little Ice Age in Japan. Natural Disasters and Climatic Variations in Little Ice Age.

Abstract

Natural disasters in Little Ice Age (c. 1550-1850) and its climatic variations which formed a significant background for the disasters are mentioned . Cool summers due to a prevailing Okhotsk High were characteristic of this period. Cold winters , summer heavy rains and unstable atmospheric conditions also constituted essential features of Little Ice Age . Aerosol ejected by a series of major volcanic eruptions partly prevented solar radiation from reaching the earth' s surface (parasol effect), which resulted in cool and unusual weather . Agriculture, in particular, was vulnerable to bad weather damage. As a result of decreasing direct insolation , sometimes together with lowering temperature and/or locally increasing precipitation , seven major famines occurred during the Edo Era (1663-1868) which approximately coincided with Little Ice Age . Several cases in this paper suggest that natural environment in Little Ice Age was marked by both volcanism and weakened solar activities which "Maunder Minimum" (1645-1715) represented.