• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.201-208
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• 2001

To investigate the physio-chemical components and properties of aerosol particles in urban area sampling of aerosol particles was carried out in the campus of Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan, during snowfall. Aerosol particles were collected on millipore filter papers using a low volume air sampler. Their shapes, sizes and chemical components were analyzed by a SEM(Scanning Electron Microscope) and an EDX(Energy Dispersive X-ray). As a results, ice crystals of dendrite and column types were predominantly shown at mature and developing stage of snowfall intensity. The denerite and sector plate types of ice crystals were mainly originated from the sea but column types were come from soil. Scavenging effect by snowfall was greatly also shown at dendrite type ice crystals that embryo was fully developd. Al, Si elements were shown at high frequencies as compared with others. Na, Cl components were especially shown at high frequencies under the sea-breeze wind during snowfall. Anthropogenic aerosol particles had shown with irregular shapes and sizes, relatively. Mainly 3-7$\mu$m aerosol particles were abundant and coarse particles also could be seen during snowfall. Ca, Zn, Fe components mainly caused by spike tires from vehicles in winter season were dominant before snowfall, however the element S mainly caused by human activity was rich after snowfall. The pH values of snow in Sapporo city were higher than those at coastal area. The concentration of chemical components in aerosol particles was also affected by surface winds. Aerosol particles in urban area, Sapporo were mainly affected by human activities like vehicles and combustion with wind system. And their types were related with snowfall intensity.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.463-477
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• 2003

This study identified the effects of global temperature rise on snowfall change over Korea selecting Seoul, Gangneung, Gunsan, and Daegu as study areas. The trend of snowfall change has generally decreased since 1950s over Korea, but has only increased in Gunsan since 1990s. The variation of snowfall days are similar to those of snowfall. The relationship between snowfall over Korea and the anomaly of global mean temperature in spring has a negative correlation. The change of Siberian High intensity also has a good relationship with snowfall in both Gunsan and Gangneung; the former is positively correlated while the latter is negatively correlated. This result might suggest that if the intensity of Siberian High would weakens due the ongoing global warming in the future, there would be a possibility that the amount snowfall could decrease in Gunsan but it could increase in Gangneung.

• Atmosphere
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.157-170
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• 2021

To investigate the effect of snowfall on the traffic of general roads in Gangwon-do, case analysis was performed in Gangneung, Pyeongchang, and Chuncheon using ASOS (Automated Synoptic Observing System) snowfall data and VDS (Vehicle Detector System) traffic data. First, we analyzed how much the traffic volume and speed decrease in snowfall cases on regional roads compared to non-snow cases, and the characteristics of monthly reduction due to snowfall were investigated. In addition, Pearson correlation analysis and regression analysis were performed to quantitatively grasp the effect of snowfall on traffic volume and speed, and sensitivity tests for snowfall intensity and cumulative snowfall were performed. The results showed that the amount of snowfall caused decrease both in the traffic volume and speed from usual (non-snowfall) condition. However, the trend was different by region: The decrease rate in traffic volume was in the order of Gangneung (17~22%), Chuncheon (14~17%), and Pyeongchang (11~14%). The decrease rate in traffic speed was in the order of Chuncheon (9~10%), Gangneung (8~9%), Pyeongchang (5~6%). No significant results were found in the monthly decrease rate analysis. In all regions, traffic volume and speed showed a negative correlation with snowfall. It was confirmed that the greater the amount of traffic entering the road, the greater the slope of the trend line indicating the change in snowfall due to the traffic volume. As a result of the sensitivity test for snowfall intensity and cumulative snowfall, the snowfall information at intervals of 6-hours was the most significant.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.89-97
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• 2013

Recently, economic and social damages are globally increased due to the heavy snowfall caused by global warming. To reduce the damages of sudden regional heavy snow in roads, suitable countermeasures should be established based on the accurate detection of snowfall intensity for each roadway segment. In this paper, we deal with snowfall intensity detecting algorithm in the road area from CCD Imagery. First, we determine the MLZ (MotionLess Zone), which does not contain lane markings and moving cars, in the image space. Next, snow streaks trespassing the MLZ are extracted with Canny operator and proposed algorithm. Also, the concept of SII (Snow Intensity Index), which is the number of snow streaks during one minute in the MLZ, is defined. Finally, the effectiveness of proposed algorithm is proved by visually comparing the imagery and SII value obtained during 69 minutes. In consequence, we figured out that the integration of SII is significantly related to an actual amount of snowfall.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.83-90
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• 2017

PURPOSES : In this study, systematic road snow-removal capabilities were estimated based on previous historical data for road-snowremoval works. The final results can be used to aid decision-making strategies for cost-effective snow-removal works by regional offices. METHODS : First, road snow-removal historical data from the road snow-removal management system (RSMS), operated by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, were employed to determine specific characteristics of the snow-removal capabilities by region. The actual owned amount and actual used amount of infrastructure were analyzed for the past three years. Second, the regional offices were classified using K-means clustering into groups "close" to one another. Actual used snow-removal infrastructure was determined from the number of snow-removal working days. Finally, the correlation between the de-icing materials used and infrastructure was analyzed. Significant differences were found among the amounts of used infrastructure depending on snowfall intensity for each regional office during the past three years. RESULTS:The results showed that the amount of snow-removal infrastructure used for low heavy-snowfall intensity did not appear to depend on the amount of heavy snowfall, and therefore, high variation is observed in each area. CONCLUSIONS:This implies that the final analysis results will be useful when making decisions on snow-removal works.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.93-101
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• 2012

PURPOSES : Adverse weather conditions such as heavy rain, heavy snowfall, and thick fog and so on have highly affect on the change in traffic conditions on the road. In particular, heavy snowfall causes capacity reduction as well as crash occurrence. This study investigated the effects of snowfall on speed on a freeway. METHODS : Vehicle detection systems data were matched with corresponding weather station data by regression analysis. RESULTS : The results show that the travel speed is reduced by 6.7% under little snowfall and by 12.8% under heavy snowfall. Regarding the speed variation, 8.7% and 114.7% increases are observed under little snowfall and heavy snowfall, respectively. It is also found that 1 cm increase in snowfall leads to 0.4% decrease in travel speed. In addition, the travel speed increases by 0.4% when the temperature increases by $1^{\circ}C$. CONCLUSIONS : It is expected that the outcome of this study will be useful in establishing more effective strategies for winter operations and road maintenance in practice.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.319-341
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• 2010

The purposes of this study are to classify heavy snowfall types in the Republic of Korea based on fresh snowfall data and atmospheric circulation data during the last 36(1973/74-2008/09) snow seasons and to identify typical surface synoptic climate patterns that characterize each heavy snowfall type. Four synoptic climate categories and seventeen regional heavy snowfall types are classified based on sea level pressure/surface wind vector patterns in East Asia and frequent spatial clustering patterns of heavy snowfall in the Republic of Korea, respectively. Composite analyses of multiple surface synoptic weather charts demonstrate that the locations and intensity of pressure/wind vector mean and anomaly cores in East Asia differentiate each regional heavy snowfall type in Korea. These differences in synoptic climatic fields are primarily associated with the surge of the Siberian high pressure system and the appearance of low pressure systems over the Korean Peninsula. In terms of hemispheric atmospheric circulation, synoptic climatic patterns in the negative mode of winter Arctic Oscillation (AO) are also associated with frequent heavy snowfall in the Republic of Korea at seasonal scales. These results from long-term synoptic climatic data could contribute to improvement of short-range or seasonal prediction of regional heavy snowfall.

• Atmosphere
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.269-282
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• 2019

While it is important to obtain the accurate information on snowfall data due to the increase in damage caused by the heavy snowfall in the winter season, it is not easy to observe the snowfall quantitatively. Recently, snow measurements using a weighing precipitation gauge have been carried out, but there is a problem that high snowfall intensity results in low accuracy. Also, the observed snowfall data are sensitive depending on wind speed, temperature, and humidity. In this study, a new process of quality control for snow water equivalent (SWE) data of the weighing precipitation gauge were proposed to cover the low accuracy of snow data and maximize the data utilization. Snowfall data (SWE) observed by Pluvio, Parsivel, snow-depth meter using laser or ultrasonic, and rainfall gauge in Cloud Physics Observation Site (CPOS) were compared and analyzed. Applying the QC algorithm including the use of number of hydrometeor particles as reference, the increased SWE per the unit time was determined and the data noise was removed and marked by flag. The SWE data converted by the number concentration of hydrometeor particles are tested as a method to restore the QC-removed data, and show good agreement with those of the weighing precipitation gauge, though requiring more case studies. The three events data for heavy snowfall disaster in Pyeongchang area was analyzed. The SWE data with improved quality was showed a good correlation with the eye-measured data ($R^2$ > 0.73).

• Atmosphere
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.577-589
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• 2015

An unusual long-period and heavy snowfall occurred in the Yeongdong region from 6 to 14 February 2014. This event produced snowfall total of 194.8 cm and the recordbreaking 9-day snowfall duration in the 103-year local record at Gangneung. In this study, satellite-derived cloud-top brightness temperatures from the infrared channel in the atmospheric window ($10{\mu}m{\sim}11{\mu}m$) are examined to find out the characteristics of clouds related with this heavy snowfall event. The analysis results reveal that a majority of precipitation is related with the low-level stratiform clouds whose cloud-top brightness temperatures are distributed from -15 to $-20^{\circ}C$ and their standard deviations over the analysis domain (${\sim}1,000km^2$, 37 satellite pixels) are less than $2^{\circ}C$. It is also found that in the above temperature range precipitation intensity tends to increase with colder temperature. When the temperatures are warmer than $-15^{\circ}C$, there is no precipitation or light precipitation. Furthermore this relation is confirmed from the examination of some other heavy snowfall events and light precipitation events which are related with the low-level stratiform clouds. This precipitation-brightness temperature relation may be explained by the combined effect of ice crystal growth processes: the maximum in dendritic ice-crystal growth occurs at about $-15^{\circ}C$ and the activation of ice nuclei begins below temperatures from approximately -7 to $-16^{\circ}C$, depending on the composition of the ice nuclei.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.843-857
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• 2008

This study analyzed distribution of natural disaster and trend of related climatic elements in mountainous region of Gangwon-do. In mountainous region of Gangwon-do, there have been 27 natural disasters of which heavy rainfall have the leading cause for the last 5 years(16 times in 2003-2007). It has been 9 natural disasters in Jinbu-myeon Pyeongchang-gun, the most frequent area. The mountainous region has been larger natural damage than its surrounding regions and there has been more damage at higher altitudes. While the heavy rainfall have caused damage over the northwest of mountains, most typhoons have damaged southern part of mountains. Most mountainous region suffers from strong wind but damage by snow is small. In mountainous region of Gangwon-do, annual precipitation, intensity of precipitation and heavy rainfall days have been increasing since 2000 and this tendency is significant in its intensity. However, annual snowfall, snowfall days and heavy snowfall days have been clearly decreasing since 2000. In case heavy rainfall accompanies strong wind, the damages are larger in mountainous region of Gangwon-do. Therefore it is important to be prepared for heavy rainfall and strong wind.