• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.219-230
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• 2022

In implementing a robust automatic target recognition(ATR) system with synthetic aperture radar(SAR) imagery, one of the most important issues is accurate classification of target variants, which are the same targets with different serial numbers, configurations and versions, etc. In this paper, a deep learning network with channel attention modules is proposed to cope with the recognition problem for target variants based on the previous research findings that the channel attention mechanism selectively emphasizes the useful features for target recognition. Different from other existing attention methods, this paper employs the channel attention modules without dimensionality reduction along the channel direction from which direct correspondence between feature map channels can be preserved and the features valuable for recognizing SAR target variants can be effectively derived. Experiments with the public benchmark dataset demonstrate that the proposed scheme is superior to the network with other existing channel attention modules.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.462-475
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• 2022

Different from the field of electro-optical(EO) image analysis, there has been less interest in similarity metrics between synthetic aperture radar(SAR) target images. A reliable and objective similarity analysis for SAR target images is expected to enable the verification of the SAR measurement process or provide the guidelines of target CAD modeling that can be used for simulating realistic SAR target images. For this purpose, this paper presents a similarity analysis method based on the siamese network that quantifies the subjective assessment through the distance learning of similar and dissimilar SAR target image pairs. The proposed method is applied to MSTAR SAR target images of slightly different depression angles and the resultant metrics are compared and analyzed with qualitative evaluation. Since the image similarity is somewhat related to recognition performance, the capacity of the proposed method for target recognition is further checked experimentally with the confusion matrix.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.54-62
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• 2017

For the Earth observation satellite for ISR mission, a satellite constellation can be utilized to observe a specific area periodically and ultimately increase the effectiveness of the mission. The Walker-Delta method was applied to design constellation orbits with four satellites, which could detect abnormal activities in AoI(Area of Interest). To evaluate the effectiveness of the mission, a revisiting time was selected as a key requirement. This paper presents the mission analysis process for four SAR satellites constellation as well as the result of constellation configuration design to meet the requirements. Figure of Merits analysis was performed based on algorithm developed. Finally, it was confirmed that the constellation orbit with four different orbital planes is likely to be appropriate for ISR mission.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.285-293
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• 2020

In this paper, to improve Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) image quality, the effect of time synchronization error in the EGI/IMU (Embedded GPS/INS, Inertial Measurement Unit) integrated system is analyzed and state augmentation is applied to compensate it. EGI/IMU integrated system is widely used as a SAR motion measurement algorithm, which consists of EGI mounted to obtain the trajectory and IMU mounted on the SAR antenna. In an EGI/IMU integrated system, a time synchronization error occurs when the clocks of the sensors are not synchronized. Analysis of the effect of time synchronization error on navigation solutions and SAR images confirmed that the time synchronization error deteriorates SAR image quality. The state augmentation is applied to compensate for this and as a result, the SAR image quality does not decrease. In addition, by analyzing the performance and the observability of the time synchronization error according to the maneuver, it was confirmed that the time-variant maneuver such as rotational motion is necessary to estimate the time synchronization error adequately. In order to reduce the influence of the time synchronization error on the SAR image, the time synchronization error must be compensated by performing maneuver changing over time such as a rotation before SAR operation.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.401-412
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• 2022

In this study, we investigated the design methods of satellite constellations to conduct near-real-time surveillance reconnaissance of the Korean Peninsula. Also, we designed satellite constellations utilizing the Walker-Delta method and repeat-ground-track method, and taking into account the target area and the feasible number of satellites. The constrains of the Electro-Optical and Synthetic Aperture Radar equipment were also considered in performance analysis. As a result, the designed constellation has mean revisit time of less than 30 min which enables near-real-time surveillance reconnaissance of the Korean Peninsula. This research provides the strategy to design the satellite constellation for reconnaissance. Furthermore, it contributes to suggesting an operating strategy for micro-satellites constellation and guidelines for establishing space force.