An unprecedentedly large ensemble of climate simulations with a 60-km atmospheric general circulation model and dynamical downscaling with a 20-km regional climate model has been performed to obtain probabilistic future projections of low-frequency local-scale events. The climate of the latter half of the twentieth century, the climate 4 K warmer than the preindustrial climate, and the climate of the latter half of the twentieth century without historical trends associated with the anthropogenic effect are each simulated for more than 5,000 years. From large ensemble simulations, probabilistic future changes in extreme events are available directly without using any statistical models. The atmospheric models are highly skillful in representing localized extreme events, such as heavy precipitation and tropical cyclones. Moreover, mean climate changes in the models are consistent with those in phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) ensembles. Therefore, the results enable the assessment of probabilistic change in localized severe events that have large uncertainty from internal variability. The simulation outputs are open to the public as a database called “Database for Policy Decision Making for Future Climate Change” (d4PDF), which is intended to be utilized for impact assessment studies and adaptation planning for global warming.

At 14:46 local time on March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake occurred off the coast of northeast Japan. This earthquake generated a tsunami that struck Japan as well as various locations around the Pacific Ocean. With the participation of about 300 researchers from throughout Japan, joint research groups conducted a tsunami survey along a 2,000 km stretch of the Japanese coast. More than 5,200 locations have been surveyed to date, generating the largest tsunami survey dataset in the world. The inundation height and run-up height were surveyed by laser, GPS, and other instruments, and the tidal correction has been accurately adjusted using a tidal database and a numerical simulation for Tohoku, an area where tide gauges were destroyed by the tsunami. Based on the survey dataset, the regional and local scale analyses were conducted to understand the basic characteristics of this event. Maximum run-up heights greater than 10 m are distributed along 500 km of coast in direct distance. The affected area of this event was several times larger than historically recorded in Tohoku. The mean inundation height in the southern Sanriku region is 10–15 m and there are several peaks of inundation along the coast from the northern to middle part of Sanriku.

Based on a weakly non-Gaussian theory, the occurrence probability of freak waves is formulated in terms of the number of waves in a time series and the surface elevation kurtosis. Finite kurtosis gives rise to a significant enhancement of freak wave generation in comparison with the linear narrowbanded wave theory. For a fixed number of waves, the estimated amplification ratio of freak wave occurrence due to the deviation from the Gaussian theory is 50%–300%. The results of the theory are compared with laboratory and field data.