88th Annual Meeting (20-24 January 2008)

Monday, 21 January 2008
Automatic mesurements of Japanese cedar / cypress pollen concentration and the numerical forecasting at Tokyo metropolitan area
Exhibit Hall B (Ernest N. Morial Convention Center)
Motoo Suzuki, Japan Meteorological Business Support Center, Tokyo, Japan; and M. Tonouchi, H. Kumagai, S. Komatsu, and K. Murayama
Poster PDF (73.2 kB)
Pollinosis, caused by Japanese cedar/cypress pollens, is the one of most serious issues in Japanese springs and some medias call it folk disease. The ratio of patients who suffer from allergies is exceeded to 20 percents of population in urban areas. In order to ease their symptoms and to reduce their risks for exposure against allergens, precise and minute observation and forecast for pollens are required both from public and private sectors. A daily pollen forecast has been informed to the public more than 10 years and it has contributed to improve patients' symptom, however, Tokyo metropolitan government installs automatic pollen counters, which can judge pollen types, to report hourly pollen concentration data at Tokyo urban areas. Additionally the government starts to report an hourly pollen contribution forecast, which uses assimilated pollen condition with the automatic pollen counters, beyond 48 hours ahead. As the result of evaluation between the pollen forecasts for 2005 and 2006 spring seasons and traditional Japanese measurements ‘Duhram methods” for pollen particles, we can restage the situation with a high degree of accuracy.

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