• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.371-384
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• 2015

Although GOCI has potential for land surface monitoring, there have been only a few cases for land applications. It might be due to the lack of reliable land products derived from GOCI data for end-users. To use for land applications, it is often essential to provide cloud-free composite over land surfaces. In this study, we proposed a cloud detection method that was very important to make cloud-free composite of GOCI reflectance and vegetation index. Since GOCI does not have SWIR and TIR spectral bands, which are very effective to separate clouds from other land cover types, we developed a multi-temporal approach to detect cloud. The proposed cloud detection method consists of three sequential steps of spectral tests. Firstly, band 1 reflectance threshold was applied to separate confident clear pixels. In second step, thick cloud was detected by the ratio (b1/b8) of band 1 and band 8 reflectance. In third step, average of b1/b8 ratio values during three consecutive days was used to detect thin cloud having mixed spectral characteristics of both cloud and land surfaces. The proposed method provides four classes of cloudiness (thick cloud, thin cloud, probably clear, confident clear). The cloud detection method was validated by the MODIS cloud mask products obtained during the same time as the GOCI data acquisition. The percentages of cloudy and cloud-free pixels between GOCI and MODIS are about the same with less than 10% RMSE. The spatial distributions of clouds detected from the GOCI images were also similar to the MODIS cloud mask products.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.37 no.5_1
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• pp.989-998
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• 2021

In the utilization of optical satellite imagery, which is greatly affected by clouds, periodic composite technique is a useful method to minimize the influence of clouds. Recently, a technique for selecting the optimal pixel that is least affected by the cloud and shadow during a certain period by directly inputting cloud and cloud shadow information during period compositing has been proposed. Accurate extraction of clouds and cloud shadowsis essential in order to derive optimal composite results. Also, in the case of an surface targets where spectral information is important, such as crops, the loss of spectral information should be minimized during cloud-free compositing. In thisstudy, clouds using two spectral indicators (Haze Optimized Tranformation and MeanVis) were used to derive a detection technique with low loss ofspectral information while maintaining high detection accuracy of clouds and cloud shadowsfor cabbage fieldsin the highlands of Gangwon-do. These detection results were compared and analyzed with cloud and cloud shadow information provided by Sentinel-2A/B. As a result of analyzing data from 2019 to 2021, cloud information from Sentinel-2A/B satellites showed detection accuracy with an F1 value of 0.91, but bright artifacts were falsely detected as clouds. On the other hand, the cloud detection result obtained by applying the threshold (=0.05) to the HOT showed relatively low detection accuracy (F1=0.72), but the loss ofspectral information was minimized due to the small number of false positives. In the case of cloud shadows, only minimal shadows were detected in the Sentinel-2A/B additional layer, but when a threshold (= 0.015) was applied to MeanVis, cloud shadowsthat could be distinguished from the topographically generated shadows could be detected. By inputting spectral indicators-based cloud and shadow information,stable monthly cloud-free composited vegetation index results were obtained, and in the future, high-accuracy cloud information of Sentinel-2A/B will be input to periodic cloud-free composite for comparison.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.33 no.5_1
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• pp.599-605
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• 2017

Accurate cloud discrimination in satellite images strongly affects accuracy of remotely sensed parameter produced using it. Especially, cloud contaminated pixel over ocean is one of the major error factors such as Sea Surface Temperature (SST), ocean color, and chlorophyll-a retrievals,so accurate cloud detection is essential process and it can lead to understand ocean circulation. However, static threshold method using real-time algorithm such as Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI) can't fully explained reflectance variability over ocean as a function of relative positions between the sun - sea surface - satellite. In this paper, we assembled a reflectance spectral library as a function of Solar Zenith Angle (SZA) and Viewing Zenith Angle (VZA) from ocean surface reflectance with clear sky condition of Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI) identified by NOAA's cloud products and spectral library is used for applying the Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) to detect cloud pixels. We compared qualitatively between AHI cloud property and our results and it showed that AHI cloud property had general tendency toward overestimation and wrongly detected clear as unknown at high SZA. We validated by visual inspection with coincident imagery and it is generally appropriate.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.38 no.5_1
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• pp.511-521
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• 2022

Cloud detection and removal from satellite images is an essential process for topographic observation and analysis. Threshold-based cloud detection techniques show stable performance because they detect using the physical characteristics of clouds, but they have the disadvantage of requiring all channels' images and long computational time. Cloud detection techniques using deep learning, which have been studied recently, show short computational time and excellent performance even using only four or less channel (RGB, NIR) images. In this paper, we confirm the performance dependence of the deep learning network according to the heterogeneous learning dataset with different resolutions. The DeepLabV3+ network was improved so that channel features of cloud detection were extracted and learned with two published heterogeneous datasets and mixed data respectively. As a result of the experiment, clouds' Jaccard index was low in a network that learned with different kind of images from test images. However, clouds' Jaccard index was high in a network learned with mixed data that added some of the same kind of test data. Clouds are not structured in a shape, so reflecting channel features in learning is more effective in cloud detection than spatial features. It is necessary to learn channel features of each satellite sensors for cloud detection. Therefore, cloud detection of heterogeneous sensors with different resolutions is very dependent on the learning dataset.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.38 no.6_1
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• pp.1181-1189
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• 2022

Clouds are composed of tiny water droplets, ice crystals, or mixtures suspended in the atmosphere and cover about two-thirds of the Earth's surface. Cloud detection in satellite images is a very difficult task to separate clouds and non-cloud areas because of similar reflectance characteristics to some other ground objects or the ground surface. In contrast to thick clouds, which have distinct characteristics, thin transparent clouds have weak contrast between clouds and background in satellite images and appear mixed with the ground surface. In order to overcome the limitations of transparent clouds in cloud detection, this study conducted cloud detection focusing on transparent clouds using machine learning techniques (Random Forest [RF], Convolutional Neural Networks [CNN]). As reference data, Cloud Mask and Cirrus Mask were used in MOD35 data provided by MOderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and the pixel ratio of training data was configured to be about 1:1:1 for clouds, transparent clouds, and clear sky for model training considering transparent cloud pixels. As a result of the qualitative comparison of the study, bothRF and CNN successfully detected various types of clouds, including transparent clouds, and in the case of RF+CNN, which mixed the results of the RF model and the CNN model, the cloud detection was well performed, and was confirmed that the limitations of the model were improved. As a quantitative result of the study, the overall accuracy (OA) value of RF was 92%, CNN showed 94.11%, and RF+CNN showed 94.29% accuracy.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.149-160
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• 2015

A comparative study was conducted for alternative consecutive procedures of detection of cloud-contaminated pixels and gap-filling and smoothing of time-series data to produce high-quality gapless satellite vegetation index (i.e. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, NDVI). Performances of five alternative methods for detecting cloud contaminations were tested with ground-observed cloudiness data. The data gap was filled with a simple linear interpolation and then, it was applied two alternative smoothing methods (i.e. Savitzky-Golay and Wavelet transform). Moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) data were used in this study. Among the alternative cloud detection methods, a criterion of MODIS Band 3 reflectance over 10% showed best accuracy with an agreement rate of 85%, which was followed by criteria of MODIS Quality assessment (82%) and Band 3 reflectance over 20% (81%), respectively. In smoothing process, the Savitzky-Golay filter was better performed to retain original NDVI patterns than the wavelet transform. This study demonstrated an operational framework of gapdetection, filling, and smoothing to produce high-quality satellite vegetation index.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.583-598
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• 2015

This paper presents derivation of background temperature from geostationary satellite and its validation based on ground measurements and Geographic Information System (GIS) for future use in weather and surface heat variability. This study only focuses on daily and monthly brightness temperature in 2012. From the analysis of COMS Meteorological Data Processing System (CMDPS) data, we have found an error in cloud distribution of model, which used as a background temperature field, and in examining the spatial homogeneity. Excessive cloudy pixels were reconstructed by statistical reanalysis based on consistency of temperature measurement. The derived Brightness temperature has correlation of 0.95, bias of 0.66 K and RMSE of 4.88 K with ground station measurements. The relation between brightness temperature and both elevation and vegetated land cover were highly anti-correlated during warm season and daytime, but marginally correlated during cold season and nighttime. This result suggests that time varying emissivity data is required to derive land surface temperature.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.133-142
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• 2014

Landsat is one of the popular satellites for observing land surface that is used in various areas including monitoring, detecting and classifying changes in land surface. However, shades, which cloud itself and its shadow, interrupted often clear observation and analysis of ground surface. For this reason, the process of removing shades and restoring original ground surfaces are critical for geospatial users. This study is planned to recommend a methodology for more accurate and clear images of Landsat-8 sensor, which provided two additional bands of costal/aerosol and cirrus. In fact, those bands are known as functioned effectively in detecting and restoring shades. Otsu's thresholding technique to detect clouds, we replaced those detective shades by using experimental and reference images. In accurate assessment, the overall accuracy and kappa coefficients were about 85% and 0.7128, respectively. This indicates that the proposed technique is effective for recovering the original land surface.

• Proceedings of the KAIS Fall Conference
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• 2012.05b
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• pp.845-847
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• 2012

본 논문에서는 다수의 Landsat 영상을 이용하여 구름지역을 보정한 영상을 제작하였다. 비슷한 시기에 취득된 다수의 영상에서 구름을 제거하고, 구름이 제거된 부분을 다른 영상의 온전한 화소값을 기준으로 복원함으로써 효과적으로 구름지역 보정 영상을 제작할 수 있었다. 제작된 영상은 구름 때문에 식별이 불가능한 지역을 크게 감소시켰으며, 주기적인 위성영상의 취득이 어려운 여건을 개선하는 한편, 대규모 지역의 변화탐지 및 영상분류 등 다양한 분야에 활용될 것이다.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.6_1
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• pp.1211-1224
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• 2023

Clouds cause many difficult problems in observing land surface phenomena using optical satellites, such as national land observation, disaster response, and change detection. In addition, the presence of clouds affects not only the image processing stage but also the final data quality, so it is necessary to identify and remove them. Therefore, in this study, we developed a new cloud detection technique that automatically performs a series of processes to search and extract the pixels closest to the spectral pattern of clouds in satellite images, select the optimal threshold, and produce a cloud mask based on the threshold. The cloud detection technique largely consists of three steps. In the first step, the process of converting the Digital Number (DN) unit image into top-of-atmosphere reflectance units was performed. In the second step, preprocessing such as Hue-Value-Saturation (HSV) transformation, triangle thresholding, and maximum likelihood classification was applied using the top of the atmosphere reflectance image, and the threshold for generating the initial cloud mask was determined for each image. In the third post-processing step, the noise included in the initial cloud mask created was removed and the cloud boundaries and interior were improved. As experimental data for cloud detection, CAS500-1 L2G images acquired in the Korean Peninsula from April to November, which show the diversity of spatial and seasonal distribution of clouds, were used. To verify the performance of the proposed method, the results generated by a simple thresholding method were compared. As a result of the experiment, compared to the existing method, the proposed method was able to detect clouds more accurately by considering the radiometric characteristics of each image through the preprocessing process. In addition, the results showed that the influence of bright objects (panel roofs, concrete roads, sand, etc.) other than cloud objects was minimized. The proposed method showed more than 30% improved results(F1-score) compared to the existing method but showed limitations in certain images containing snow.