• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.38 no.5_2
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• pp.747-763
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• 2022

Ocean salinity affects ocean circulation on a global scale and low salinity water around coastal areas often has an impact on aquaculture and fisheries. Microwave satellite sensors (e.g., Soil Moisture Active Passive [SMAP]) have provided sea surface salinity (SSS) based on the dielectric characteristics of water associated with SSS and sea surface temperature (SST). In this study, a Light Gradient Boosting Machine (LGBM)-based model for generating high resolution SSS from Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI) data was proposed, having machine learning-based improved SMAP SSS by Jang et al. (2022) as reference data (SMAP SSS (Jang)). Three schemes with different input variables were tested, and scheme 3 with all variables including Multi-scale Ultra-high Resolution SST yielded the best performance (coefficient of determination = 0.60, root mean square error = 0.91 psu). The proposed LGBM-based GOCI SSS had a similar spatiotemporal pattern with SMAP SSS (Jang), with much higher spatial resolution even in coastal areas, where SMAP SSS (Jang) was not available. In addition, when tested for the great flood occurred in Southern China in August 2020, GOCI SSS well simulated the spatial and temporal change of Changjiang Diluted Water. This research provided a potential that optical satellite data can be used to generate high resolution SSS associated with the improved microwave-based SSS especially in coastal areas.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.6_3
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• pp.1779-1790
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• 2023

Satellite-based fog detection algorithms are being developed to detect fog in real-time over a wide area, with a focus on the Korean Peninsula (KorPen). The GEO-KOMPSAT-2A/Advanced Meteorological Imager (GK2A/AMI, GK2A) satellite offers an excellent temporal resolution (10 min) and a spatial resolution (500 m), while GEO-KOMPSAT-2B/Geostationary Ocean Color Imager-II (GK2B/GOCI-II, GK2B) provides an excellent spatial resolution (250 m) but poor temporal resolution (1 h) with only visible channels. To enhance the fog detection level (10 min, 250 m), we developed a fused GK2AB fog detection algorithm (FDA) of GK2A and GK2B. The GK2AB FDA comprises three main steps. First, the Korea Meteorological Satellite Center's GK2A daytime fog detection algorithm is utilized to detect fog, considering various optical and physical characteristics. In the second step, GK2B data is extrapolated to 10-min intervals by matching GK2A pixels based on the closest time and location when GK2B observes the KorPen. For reflectance, GK2B normalized visible (NVIS) is corrected using GK2A NVIS of the same time, considering the difference in wavelength range and observation geometry. GK2B NVIS is extrapolated at 10-min intervals using the 10-min changes in GK2A NVIS. In the final step, the extrapolated GK2B NVIS, solar zenith angle, and outputs of GK2A FDA are utilized as input data for machine learning (decision tree) to develop the GK2AB FDA, which detects fog at a resolution of 250 m and a 10-min interval based on geographical locations. Six and four cases were used for the training and validation of GK2AB FDA, respectively. Quantitative verification of GK2AB FDA utilized ground observation data on visibility, wind speed, and relative humidity. Compared to GK2A FDA, GK2AB FDA exhibited a fourfold increase in spatial resolution, resulting in more detailed discrimination between fog and non-fog pixels. In general, irrespective of the validation method, the probability of detection (POD) and the Hanssen-Kuiper Skill score (KSS) are high or similar, indicating that it better detects previously undetected fog pixels. However, GK2AB FDA, compared to GK2A FDA, tends to over-detect fog with a higher false alarm ratio and bias.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.6_2
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• pp.1605-1613
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• 2023

The physical properties of the ocean interior are determined by temperature and salinity. To observe them, we rely on satellite observations for broad regions of oceans. However, the satellite for salinity measurement, Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP), has low temporal and spatial resolutions; thus, more is needed to resolve the fast-changing coastal environment. To overcome these limitations, the algorithm to use the Geostationary Ocean Color Imager-II (GOCI-II) of the Geo-Kompsat-2B (GK-2B) was developed as the inputs for a Multi-layer Perceptron Neural Network (MPNN). The result shows that coefficient of determination (R²), root mean square error (RMSE), and relative root mean square error (RRMSE) between GOCI-II based sea surface salinity (SSS) (GOCI-II SSS) and SMAP was 0.94, 0.58 psu, and 1.87%, respectively. Furthermore, the spatial variation of GOCI-II SSS was also very uniform, with over 0.8 of R² and less than 1 psu of RMSE. In addition, GOCI-II SSS was also compared with SSS of Ieodo Ocean Research Station (I-ORS), suggesting that the result was slightly low, which was further analyzed for the following reasons. We further illustrated the valuable information of high spatial and temporal variation of GOCI-II SSS to analyze SSS variation by the 11th typhoon, Hinnamnor, in 2022. We used the mean and standard deviation (STD) of one day of GOCI-II SSS, revealing the high spatial and temporal changes. Thus, this study will shed light on the research for monitoring the highly changing marine environment.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.5_3
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• pp.933-948
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• 2023

Atmospheric aerosols not only have adverse effects on human health but also exert direct and indirect impacts on the climate system. Consequently, it is imperative to comprehend the characteristics and spatiotemporal distribution of aerosols. Numerous research endeavors have been undertaken to monitor aerosols, predominantly through the retrieval of aerosol optical depth (AOD) via satellite-based observations. Nonetheless, this approach primarily relies on a look-up table-based inversion algorithm, characterized by computationally intensive operations and associated uncertainties. In this study, a novel high-resolution AOD direct retrieval algorithm, leveraging machine learning, was developed using top-of-atmosphere reflectance data derived from the Geostationary Ocean Color Imager-II (GOCI-II), in conjunction with their differences from the past 30-day minimum reflectance, and meteorological variables from numerical models. The Light Gradient Boosting Machine (LGBM) technique was harnessed, and the resultant estimates underwent rigorous validation encompassing random, temporal, and spatial N-fold cross-validation (CV) using ground-based observation data from Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) AOD. The three CV results consistently demonstrated robust performance, yielding R²=0.70-0.80, RMSE=0.08-0.09, and within the expected error (EE) of 75.2-85.1%. The Shapley Additive exPlanations(SHAP) analysis confirmed the substantial influence of reflectance-related variables on AOD estimation. A comprehensive examination of the spatiotemporal distribution of AOD in Seoul and Ulsan revealed that the developed LGBM model yielded results that are in close concordance with AERONET AOD over time, thereby confirming its suitability for AOD retrieval at high spatiotemporal resolution (i.e., hourly, 250 m). Furthermore, upon comparing data coverage, it was ascertained that the LGBM model enhanced data retrieval frequency by approximately 8.8% in comparison to the GOCI-II L2 AOD products, ameliorating issues associated with excessive masking over very illuminated surfaces that are often encountered in physics-based AOD retrieval processes.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.193-205
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• 2023

A large amount of floating debris from land-based sources during heavy rainfall has negative social, economic, and environmental impacts, but there is a lack of monitoring systems for floating debris accumulation areas and amounts. With the recent development of artificial intelligence technology, there is a need to quickly and efficiently study large areas of water systems using drone imagery and deep learning-based object detection models. In this study, we acquired various images as well as drone images and trained with You Only Look Once (YOLO)v5s and the recently developed YOLO7 and YOLOv8s to compare the performance of each model to propose an efficient detection technique for land-based floating debris. The qualitative performance evaluation of each model showed that all three models are good at detecting floating debris under normal circumstances, but the YOLOv8s model missed or duplicated objects when the image was overexposed or the water surface was highly reflective of sunlight. The quantitative performance evaluation showed that YOLOv7 had the best performance with a mean Average Precision (intersection over union, IoU 0.5) of 0.940, which was better than YOLOv5s (0.922) and YOLOv8s (0.922). As a result of generating distortion in the color and high-frequency components to compare the performance of models according to data quality, the performance degradation of the YOLOv8s model was the most obvious, and the YOLOv7 model showed the lowest performance degradation. This study confirms that the YOLOv7 model is more robust than the YOLOv5s and YOLOv8s models in detecting land-based floating debris. The deep learning-based floating debris detection technique proposed in this study can identify the spatial distribution of floating debris by category, which can contribute to the planning of future cleanup work.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.247-263
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• 2021

Climate change has been accelerating in coastal waters recently; therefore, the importance of coastal environmental monitoring is also increasing. Chlorophyll-a concentration, an important marine variable, in the surface layer of the global ocean has been retrieved for decades through various ocean color satellites and utilized in various research fields. However, the commonly used chlorophyll-a concentration algorithm is only suitable for application in clear water and cannot be applied to turbid waters because significant errors are caused by differences in their distinct components and optical properties. In addition, designing a standard algorithm for coastal waters is difficult because of differences in various optical characteristics depending on the coastal area. To overcome this problem, various algorithms have been developed and used considering the components and the variations in the optical properties of coastal waters with high turbidity. Chlorophyll-a concentration retrieval algorithms can be categorized into empirical algorithms, semi-analytic algorithms, and machine learning algorithms. These algorithms mainly use the blue-green band ratio based on the reflective spectrum of sea water as the basic form. In constrast, algorithms developed for turbid water utilizes the green-red band ratio, the red-near-infrared band ratio, and the inherent optical properties to compensate for the effect of dissolved organisms and suspended sediments in coastal area. Reliable retrieval of satellite chlorophyll-a concentration from turbid waters is essential for monitoring the coastal environment and understanding changes in the marine ecosystem. Therefore, this study summarizes the pre-existing algorithms that have been utilized for monitoring turbid Case 2 water and presents the problems associated with the mornitoring and study of seas around the Korean Peninsula. We also summarize the prospective for future ocean color satellites, which can yield more accurate and diverse results regarding the ecological environment with the development of multi-spectral and hyperspectral sensors.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.363-373
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• 2020

During last decades numerous studies generating orthoimage have been carried out. Traditional methods require exterior orientation parameters of aerial images and precise 3D object modeling data and DTM (Digital Terrain Model) to detect and recover occlusion areas. Furthermore, it is challenging task to automate the complicated process. In this paper, we proposed a new concept of true orthoimage generation using DL (Deep Learning). DL is rapidly used in wide range of fields. In particular, GAN (Generative Adversarial Network) is one of the DL models for various tasks in imaging processing and computer vision. The generator tries to produce results similar to the real images, while discriminator judges fake and real images until the results are satisfied. Such mutually adversarial mechanism improves quality of the results. Experiments were performed using GAN-based Pix2Pix model by utilizing IR (Infrared) orthoimages, intensity from LiDAR data provided by the German Society for Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Geoinformation (DGPF) through the ISPRS (International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing). Two approaches were implemented: (1) One-step training with intensity data and high resolution orthoimages, (2) Recursive training with intensity data and color-coded low resolution intensity images for progressive enhancement of the results. Two methods provided similar quality based on FID (Fréchet Inception Distance) measures. However, if quality of the input data is close to the target image, better results could be obtained by increasing epoch. This paper is an early experimental study for feasibility of DL-based true orthoimage generation and further improvement would be necessary.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.321-335
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• 2021

Particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5 with a diameter less than 10 and 2.5 ㎛, respectively) can be absorbed by the human body and adversely affect human health. Although most of the PM monitoring are based on ground-based observations, they are limited to point-based measurement sites, which leads to uncertainty in PM estimation for regions without observation sites. It is possible to overcome their spatial limitation by using satellite data. In this study, we developed machine learning-based retrieval algorithm for ground-level PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations using aerosol parameters from Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI) satellite and various meteorological parameters from a numerical weather prediction model during January to December of 2019. Gradient Boosted Regression Trees (GBRT) and Light Gradient Boosting Machine (LightGBM) were used to estimate PM concentrations. The model performances were examined for two types of feature sets-all input parameters (Feature set 1) and a subset of input parameters without meteorological and land-cover parameters (Feature set 2). Both models showed higher accuracy (about 10 % higher in R2) by using the Feature set 1 than the Feature set 2. The GBRT model using Feature set 1 was chosen as the final model for further analysis(PM10: R2 = 0.82, nRMSE = 34.9 %, PM2.5: R2 = 0.75, nRMSE = 35.6 %). The spatial distribution of the seasonal and annual-averaged PM concentrations was similar with in-situ observations, except for the northeastern part of China with bright surface reflectance. Their spatial distribution and seasonal changes were well matched with in-situ measurements.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.38 no.5_3
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• pp.939-951
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• 2022

The most important factor in designing autonomous driving systems is to recognize the exact location of the vehicle within the surrounding environment. To date, various sensors and navigation systems have been used for autonomous driving systems; however, all have limitations. Therefore, the need for high-definition (HD) maps that provide high-precision infrastructure information for safe and convenient autonomous driving is increasing. HD maps are drawn using three-dimensional point cloud data acquired through a mobile mapping system (MMS). However, this process requires manual work due to the large numbers of points and drawing layers, increasing the cost and effort associated with HD mapping. The objective of this study was to improve the efficiency of HD mapping by segmenting semantic information in an MMS point cloud into six classes: roads, curbs, sidewalks, medians, lanes, and other elements. Segmentation was performed using various machine learning techniques including random forest (RF), support vector machine (SVM), k-nearest neighbor (KNN), and gradient-boosting machine (GBM), and 11 variables including geometry, color, intensity, and other road design features. MMS point cloud data for a 130-m section of a five-lane road near Minam Station in Busan, were used to evaluate the segmentation models; the average F1 scores of the models were 95.43% for RF, 92.1% for SVM, 91.05% for GBM, and 82.63% for KNN. The RF model showed the best segmentation performance, with F1 scores of 99.3%, 95.5%, 94.5%, 93.5%, and 90.1% for roads, sidewalks, curbs, medians, and lanes, respectively. The variable importance results of the RF model showed high mean decrease accuracy and mean decrease gini for XY dist. and Z dist. variables related to road design, respectively. Thus, variables related to road design contributed significantly to the segmentation of semantic information. The results of this study demonstrate the applicability of segmentation of MMS point cloud data based on machine learning, and will help to reduce the cost and effort associated with HD mapping.

• 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.