• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.47 no.10
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• pp.945-958
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• 2014

Soil temperature is one of the most important environmental factors that govern hydrological and biogeochemical processes related to diffuse pollution. In this study, considering the snowmelting and the soil freezing-thawing processes, a set of computer codes to estimate winter soil temperature has been developed for CAMEL (Chemicals, Agricultural Management and Erosion Losses), a distributed watershed model. The model was calibrated and validated against the field measurements for three months at 4 sites across the study catchment in a rural area of Yeoju, Korea. The degree of agreement between the simulated and the observed soil temperature is good for the soil surface ($R^2$ 0.71~0.95, RMSE $0.89{\sim}1.49^{\circ}C$). As for the subsurface soils, however, the simulation results are not as good as for the soil surface ($R^2$ 0.51~0.97, RMSE $0.51{\sim}5.08^{\circ}C$) which is considered resulting from vertically-homogeneous soil textures assumed in the model. The model well simulates the blanket effect of snowpack and the latent heat flux in the soil freezing-thawing processes. Although there is some discrepancy between the simulated and the observed soil temperature due to limitations of the model structure and the lack of data, the model reasonably well simulates the temporal and spatial distributions of the soil temperature and the snow water equivalent in accordance with the land uses and the topography of the study catchment.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.270-274
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• 2006

This study proposes a new method for automatic recording of snowfall by a mass unit which is required in weather forecast and hydrology research. In this method the weight of a buoyancy bar submerged in a liquid is measured by a strain-gauge loadcell. Field test results of the strain-gauge loadcell showed good stability as well as high accuracy. Indoor tests of the instrument using a large tank of 120 cm diameter and 25 cm height connected to a small tank measured the liquid level with a good stability, showing a measurement error of less than 0.1 mm in a 100 mm range. This method of water depth measurement is very useful in measuring snowfall because it has no limitation on the funnel size of the instrument. In addition, an antifreezing solution instead of water used in the tank makes a heating system for melting snow unnecessary.