Research on Long-Distance Snow Depth Measurement Method Based on Improved YOLOv8

Real-time monitoring of snow depth is crucial in meteorological forecasting, transportation management, disaster warning, and ecological protection. With the development of deep learning, the YOLO model has become widely used for automated snow depth detection due to its efficient and accurate insta...

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Main Authors: Jia-Wen Wang, Yu Cao, Zong-Kai Guo, Cheng Xu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2025-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10928328/
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author Jia-Wen Wang
Yu Cao
Zong-Kai Guo
Cheng Xu
author_facet Jia-Wen Wang
Yu Cao
Zong-Kai Guo
Cheng Xu
author_sort Jia-Wen Wang
collection DOAJ
description Real-time monitoring of snow depth is crucial in meteorological forecasting, transportation management, disaster warning, and ecological protection. With the development of deep learning, the YOLO model has become widely used for automated snow depth detection due to its efficient and accurate instance segmentation. However, the standard YOLOv8-seg model still faces challenges, such as insufficient detection accuracy and blurred edges, when dealing with snow detection in complex backgrounds. To address these issues, this paper proposes a snow depth detection method based on an improved YOLOv8-seg model, named YOLOv8-AE. First, an efficient multiscale attention (EMA) module is incorporated into the C2f module to enhance feature extraction capabilities. Second, the introduction of the variable kernel convolution (AKConv) module improves the adaptability of convolutional operations, boosting the model’s performance in snow depth detection. Comparative experimental results show that, compared with the YOLOv8-seg model, the YOLOv8-AE model increases the ratio of snow depths that deviate by no more than 2 cm from the reference value, from 84% to 88% on average. The RMSE decreases by 0.74, and the MAE decreases by 0.93, significantly improving the accuracy of snow depth measurements.
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spelling doaj-art-21f4dbf054d045ffa026d15a1b95fe8a2025-08-20T01:51:39ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362025-01-0113553705538010.1109/ACCESS.2025.355172710928328Research on Long-Distance Snow Depth Measurement Method Based on Improved YOLOv8Jia-Wen Wang0https://orcid.org/0009-0008-7353-3277Yu Cao1https://orcid.org/0009-0006-7562-5680Zong-Kai Guo2Cheng Xu3School of Artificial Intelligence and Software, Liaoning University of Petrochemical Technology, Fushun, ChinaSchool of Artificial Intelligence and Software, Liaoning University of Petrochemical Technology, Fushun, ChinaSchool of Economics and Management, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang, ChinaSchool of Economics and Management, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang, ChinaReal-time monitoring of snow depth is crucial in meteorological forecasting, transportation management, disaster warning, and ecological protection. With the development of deep learning, the YOLO model has become widely used for automated snow depth detection due to its efficient and accurate instance segmentation. However, the standard YOLOv8-seg model still faces challenges, such as insufficient detection accuracy and blurred edges, when dealing with snow detection in complex backgrounds. To address these issues, this paper proposes a snow depth detection method based on an improved YOLOv8-seg model, named YOLOv8-AE. First, an efficient multiscale attention (EMA) module is incorporated into the C2f module to enhance feature extraction capabilities. Second, the introduction of the variable kernel convolution (AKConv) module improves the adaptability of convolutional operations, boosting the model’s performance in snow depth detection. Comparative experimental results show that, compared with the YOLOv8-seg model, the YOLOv8-AE model increases the ratio of snow depths that deviate by no more than 2 cm from the reference value, from 84% to 88% on average. The RMSE decreases by 0.74, and the MAE decreases by 0.93, significantly improving the accuracy of snow depth measurements.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10928328/YOLOv8-segsnow depthEMA attention mechanismAKConv module
spellingShingle Jia-Wen Wang
Yu Cao
Zong-Kai Guo
Cheng Xu
Research on Long-Distance Snow Depth Measurement Method Based on Improved YOLOv8
IEEE Access
YOLOv8-seg
snow depth
EMA attention mechanism
AKConv module
title Research on Long-Distance Snow Depth Measurement Method Based on Improved YOLOv8
title_full Research on Long-Distance Snow Depth Measurement Method Based on Improved YOLOv8
title_fullStr Research on Long-Distance Snow Depth Measurement Method Based on Improved YOLOv8
title_full_unstemmed Research on Long-Distance Snow Depth Measurement Method Based on Improved YOLOv8
title_short Research on Long-Distance Snow Depth Measurement Method Based on Improved YOLOv8
title_sort research on long distance snow depth measurement method based on improved yolov8
topic YOLOv8-seg
snow depth
EMA attention mechanism
AKConv module
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10928328/
work_keys_str_mv AT jiawenwang researchonlongdistancesnowdepthmeasurementmethodbasedonimprovedyolov8
AT yucao researchonlongdistancesnowdepthmeasurementmethodbasedonimprovedyolov8
AT zongkaiguo researchonlongdistancesnowdepthmeasurementmethodbasedonimprovedyolov8
AT chengxu researchonlongdistancesnowdepthmeasurementmethodbasedonimprovedyolov8