• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.233-243
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• 2021

Photovoltaic panels are hazardous electronic waste that has heavy metal as one of the hazardous components. Each year, hazardous electronic waste is increasing worldwide and every heavy rainfall exposes the photovoltaic panel to become the source of heavy metal soil contamination. the development needs a monitoring technology for this hazardous exposure. this research use relationships between SAR temporal baseline and coherence of Sentinel-1 satellite to detected photovoltaic panel. Also, the photovoltaic plant detection tested using the difference between that photovoltaic panel and the other difference surface of coherence. The author tested the photovoltaic panel and its environment to calculate differences in coherence relationships. As a result of the experiment, the coherence of the photovoltaic panel, which is assumed to be a permanent scatterer, shows a bias that is biased toward a median value of 0.53 with a distribution of 0.50 to 0.65. Therefore, further research is needed to improve errors that may occur during processing. Additionally, the author found that the change detection using a temporal baseline is possible as the rate of reduction of coherence of photovoltaic panels differs from those of artificial objects such as buildings. This result could be an efficient way to continuously monitor regardless of weather conditions, which was a limitation of the existing optical satellite image-based photovoltaic panel detection research and to understand the spatial distribution in situations such as photovoltaic panel loss.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.38 no.5_1
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• pp.571-585
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• 2022

As the threat of natural disasters such as droughts, floods, forest fires, and landslides increases due to climate change, social demand for high-resolution soil moisture retrieval, such as Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), is also increasing. However, the domestic environment has a high proportion of mountainous topography, making it challenging to retrieve soil moisture from SAR data. This study evaluated the usability of Sentinel-1 SAR, which is applied with the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) technique, to retrieve soil moisture. It was confirmed that the backscattering coefficient obtained from Sentinel-1 significantly correlated with soil moisture behavior, and the possibility of stand-alone use to correct vegetation effects without using auxiliary data observed from other satellites or observatories. However, there was a large difference in the characteristics of each site and topographic group. In particular, when the model learned on the mountain and at flat land cross-applied, the soil moisture could not be properly simulated. In addition, when the number of learning points was increased to solve this problem, the soil moisture retrieval model was smoothed. As a result, the overall correlation coefficient of all sites improved, but errors at individual sites gradually increased. Therefore, systematic research must be conducted in order to widely apply high-resolution SAR soil moisture data. It is expected that it can be effectively used in various fields if the scope of learning sites and application targets are specifically limited.

• Journal of Space Technology and Applications
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.199-216
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• 2021

In 2020, the solar and space environment division at the Korea Space Science Society surveyed the status of data archives in solar physics, magnetosphere, and ionosphere/upper atmosphere in Korea to promote broader utilization of the data and research collaboration. The survey includes ground- and satellite-based instruments and developing models by research institutes and universities in Korea. Based on the survey results, this study reports the status of the ground-based instruments, data products in the ionosphere and upper atmosphere, and documentation of them. The ground-based instruments operated by the Korea Polar Research Institute and Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute include ionosonde, Fabry-Perot interferometer in Arctic Dasan stations, Antarctic King Sejong/Jang Bogo stations, and an all-sky camera, VHF radar in Korea. We also provide information on total electron content and scintillation observations derived from the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) station networks in Korea. All data are available via the webpage, FTP, or by request. Information on ionospheric data and models is available at http://ksss.or.kr. We hope that this report will increase data accessibility and encourage the research community to engage in the establishment of a new Space Science Data Ecosystem, which supports archiving, searching, analyzing, and sharing the data with diverse communities, including educators, industries, and the public as wells as the research scientist.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.257-268
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• 2023

Sea ice plays an important role in Earth's climate by regulating the amount of solar energy absorbed and controlling the exchange of heat and material across the air-sea interface. Its growth, drift, and melting are monitored on a regular basis by satellite observations. However, low-resolution products with passive microwave radiometer have reduced accuracy during summer to autumn when the ice surface changes rapidly. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) observations are emerging as a powerful complementary, but previous researches have mainly focused on winter ice. In this study, sea ice drift tracking was evaluated and analyzed using SAR images and tracker with global positioning system (GPS) during late summer-early autumn period when ice surface condition changes a lot. The results showed that observational uncertainty increases compared to winter period, however, the correlation coefficient with GPS measurements was excellent at 0.98, and the performance of the ice tracking algorithm was proportional to the sea ice concentration with a correlation coefficient of 0.59 for ice concentrations above 50%.

• Atmosphere
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.467-482
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• 2010

In this study, characteristics of various stability indexes (SI) and environmental parameters (EP) for the lightning are analysed by using 5 upper air observatories (Osan, Gwangju, Jeju, Pohang, and Baengnyeongdo) for the years 2002-2006 over South Korea. The analysed SI and EP are the lifted index, K-index, Showalter stability index, total precipitable water, mixing ratio, wind shear and temperature of lifting condensation level. The lightning data occurred on the range of -2 hr~+1 hr and within 100 km based on the launch time of rawinsonde and observing location are selected. In general, summer averaged temperature and mixing ratio of lower troposphere for the lightning cases are higher about 1 K and $1{\sim}2gkg^{-1}$ than no lightning cases, respectively. The Box-Whisker plot shows that the range of various SI and EP values for lightning and no lightning cases are well separated but overlapping of SI and EP values between lightning and no lightning are not a little. The optimized threshold values for the detection of lightning are determined objectively based on the highest Heidke skill socre (HSS), which is the most favorable validation parameter for the rare event, such as lightning, by using the simulation of SI and EP threshold values. Although the HSS is not high (0.15~0.30) and the number and values of selected SI and EP are dependent on geographic location, the new threshold values can be used as a supplementary tool for the detection or forecast of lightning over South Korea.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.36 no.5_1
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• pp.847-860
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• 2020

The 2-pass DInSAR (Differential Interferometric SAR) processing steps for DEM generation consist of the co-registration of SAR image pair, interferogram generation, phase unwrapping, calculation of DEM errors, and geocoding, etc. It requires complicated steps, and the accuracy of data processing at each step affects the performance of the finally generated DEM. In this study, we developed an improved method for enhancing the performance of the DEM generation method based on the 2-pass DInSAR technique of TanDEM-X bistatic SAR images was developed. The developed DEM generation method is a method that can significantly reduce both the DEM error in the unwrapped phase image and that may occur during geocoding step. The performance analysis of the developed algorithm was performed by comparing the vertical accuracy (Root Mean Square Error, RMSE) between the existing method and the newly proposed method using the ground control point (GCP) generated from GPS survey. The vertical accuracy of the DInSAR-based DEM generated without correction for the unwrapped phase error and geocoding error is 39.617 m. However, the vertical accuracy of the DEM generated through the proposed method is 2.346 m. It was confirmed that the DEM accuracy was improved through the proposed correction method. Through the proposed 2-pass DInSAR-based DEM generation method, the SRTM DEM error observed by DInSAR was compensated for the SRTM 30 m DEM (vertical accuracy 5.567 m) used as a reference. Through this, it was possible to finally create a DEM with improved spatial resolution of about 5 times and vertical accuracy of about 2.4 times. In addition, the spatial resolution of the DEM generated through the proposed method was matched with the SRTM 30 m DEM and the TanDEM-X 90m DEM, and the vertical accuracy was compared. As a result, it was confirmed that the vertical accuracy was improved by about 1.7 and 1.6 times, respectively, and more accurate DEM generation was possible with the proposed method. If the method derived in this study is used to continuously update the DEM for regions with frequent morphological changes, it will be possible to update the DEM effectively in a short time at low cost.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.559-566
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• 2007

The generation of precise digital elevation model (DEM) is very important in coastal area where time series are especially required. Although a LIDAR system is useful in coastal regions, it is not yet popular in Korea mainly because of its high surveying cost and national security reasons. Recently, precise DEM has been made using radar interferometry and waterline methods. One of these methods, spaceborne imaging radar interferometry has been widely used to measure the topography and deformation of the Earth. We acquired ALOS PALSAR FBD mode (Fine Beam Dual) data for evaluating the quality of interferograms and their coherency. We attempted to construct DEM using ALOS PALSAR pairs - One pair is 2007/05/22 and 2007/08/22, another pair is 2007/08/22 and 2007/10/22 with respective perpendicular baseline of 820 m, 312m and respective height sensitivity of 75 m and 185m at southern of Ganghwa tidal flat, Siwha- and Hwaong-lake over west coastal of Korea peninsula. Ganghwa tidal flat has low coherence between 0.3 and 0.5 of 2007/05/22 and 2007/08/22 pair. However, Siwha-lake and Hwaong-lake areas have a higher coherence value (From 0.7 and 0.9) than Ganghwa tidal area. The reason of difference coherence value is tidal condition between tidal flat area (Ganghwa) and reclaimed zone (Siwha-lake and Hwaong-lake). Therefore, DEM was constructed by ALOS PALSAR pair over Siwha-lake and Hwaong-lake. If the temporal baseline is enough short to maintain the coherent phases and height sensitivity is enough small, we will be able to successfully construct a precise DEM over coastal area. From now on, more ALOS PALSAR data will be needed to construct precise DEM of West Coast of Korea peninsular.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.54 no.7
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• pp.535-544
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• 2021

Agricultural water occupies 48% of water demand, and management of agricultural reservoirs is essential for water resources management within agricultural basins. For more efficient use of agricultural water, monitoring the distribution of water resources in agricultural reservoirs and agricultural basins is required. Therefore, in this study, three threshold determination methods (i.e., fixed threshold, Otsu threshold, Kittler-Illingworth (KI) threshold) were compared to detect terrestrial water bodies using Sentinel-1 images for 3 years from 2018 to 2020. The purpose of this study was to evaluate methods for determining threshold values to more accurately estimate the reservoir area. In addition, by analyzing the relationship between the water surface and water storage at the Edong, Gosam, and Giheung reservoirs, water storage based on the SAR image was estimated and validated with observations. The thresholding method for detecting a waterbody was found to be the most accurate in the case of the KI threshold, and the water storage estimated by the KI threshold indicated a very high agreement (r = 0.9235, KGE' = 0.8691). Although the seasonal error characteristics were not observed, the problem of underestimation at high water levels may occur; the relationship between the water surface and the water storage could change rapidly. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the relationship between the water surface area and water storage through ground observation data for a more accurate estimation of water storage. If the use of SAR data through water resources satellites becomes possible in the future, based on the results of this study, it is judged that it will be beneficial for monitoring water storage and managing drought.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.34 no.6_3
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• pp.1457-1468
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• 2018

The sigma naught (${\sigma}^0$) equation is essential to calculate geo-physical properties from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images for the applications such as ground target identification,surface classification, sea wind speed calculation, and soil moisture estimation. In this paper, we are suggesting new Kompsat-5 (K5) Radar Cross Section (RCS) and ${\sigma}^0$ equations reflecting the final SAR processor update and absolute radiometric calibration in order to increase the application of K5 SAR images. Firstly, we analyzed the accuracy of the K5 RCS equation by using trihedral corner reflectors installed in the Kompsat calibration site in Mongolia. The average difference between the calculated values using RCS equation and the measured values with K5 SAR processor was about $0.2dBm^2$ for Spotlight and Stripmap imaging modes. In addition, the verification of the K5 ${\sigma}^0$ equation was carried out using the TerraSAR-X (TSX) and Sentinel-1A (S-1A) SAR images over Amazon rainforest, where the backscattering characteristics are not significantly affected by the seasonal change. The calculated ${\sigma}^0$ difference between K5 and TSX/S-1A was less than 0.6 dB. Considering the K5 absolute radiometric accuracy requirement, which is 2.0 dB ($1{\sigma}$), the average difference of $0.2dBm^2$ for RCS equation and the maximum difference of 0.6 dB for ${\sigma}^0$ equation show that the accuracies of the suggested equations are relatively high. In the future, the validity of the suggested RCS and ${\sigma}^0$ equations is expected to be verified through the application such as sea wind speed calculation, where quantitative analysis is possible.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.38 no.5_1
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• pp.497-510
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• 2022

Agricultural reservoirs are essential structures for water supplies during dry period in the Korean peninsula, where water resources are temporally unequally distributed. For efficient water management, systematic and effective monitoring of medium-small reservoirs is required. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) provides a way for continuous monitoring of those, with its capability of all-weather observation. This study aims to evaluate the applicability of SAR in monitoring medium-small reservoirs using Sentinel-1 (10 m resolution) and Capella X-SAR (1 m resolution), at Chari (CR), Galjeon (GJ), Dwitgol (DG) reservoirs located in Ulsan, Korea. Water detected results applying Z fuzzy function-based threshold (Z-thresh) and Chan-vese (CV), an object detection-based segmentation algorithm, are quantitatively evaluated using UAV-detected water boundary (UWB). Accuracy metrics from Z-thresh were 0.87, 0.89, 0.77 (at CR, GJ, DG, respectively) using Sentinel-1 and 0.78, 0.72, 0.81 using Capella, and improvements were observed when CV was applied (Sentinel-1: 0.94, 0.89, 0.84, Capella: 0.92, 0.89, 0.93). Boundaries of the waterbody detected from Capella agreed relatively well with UWB; however, false- and un-detections occurred from speckle noises, due to its high resolution. When masked with optical sensor-based supplementary images, improvements up to 13% were observed. More effective water resource management is expected to be possible with continuous monitoring of available water quantity, when more accurate and precise SAR-based water detection technique is developed.