• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.37 no.6_1
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• pp.1647-1656
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• 2021

In order to reduce the spread of infection due to COVID-19, South Korea has established a four-step social distancing standard and implemented it by changing the steps based on the rate of confirmed cases. The implementation of social distancing brought about a change in the amount of activity of citizens by limiting social contact such as movement and gathering of people. One of the data that can intuitively confirm this is Night Time Light (NTL). NTL is a variable that can measure the size of the national economy measured using lights captured by satellites, and can be used to understand people's social activities during the night. The NTL visible data is obtained via the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Day-Night Band (DNB) onboard the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) satellite. 1023 of Suomi data from 1 January 2019 until 26 October 2021 were collected to generate time series of NTL radiance change over Seoul to analyze the correlation with social distancing policy. The results show that implementing the level of social distancing generally decreased the NTL radiance both in spatial disparities and temporal patterns. The higher level of policy, limiting human activities combined with the low number of people who have been vaccinated and the closure of various facilities. Because of social distancing, the differences in human activities affected the nighttime light during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in Seoul, South Korea. Therefore, this study can be used as a reference for the government in evaluating and improving policies related to efforts reducing the transmission of COVID-19.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.73-86
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• 2016

In this study, an algorithm to estimate Aerosol Optical Thickness (AOT) over small cities during nighttime has been developed by using the radiance from artificial light sources in small cities measured from Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) sensor's Day/Night Band (DNB) aboard the Suomi-National Polar Partnership (Suomi-NPP) satellite. The algorithm is based on Beer's extinction law with the light sources from the artificial lights over small cities. AOT is retrieved for cloud-free pixels over individual cities, and cloud-screening was conducted by using the measurements from M-bands of VIIRS at infrared wavelengths. The retrieved nighttime AOT is compared with the aerosol products from MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard Terra and Aqua satellites. As a result, the correlation coefficients over individual cities range from around 0.6 and 0.7 between the retrieved nighttime AOT and MODIS AOT with Root-Mean-Squared Difference (RMSD) ranged from 0.14 to 0.18. In addition, sensitivity tests were conducted for the factors affecting the nighttime AOT to estimate the range of uncertainty in the nighttime AOT retrievals. The results of this study indicate that it is promising to infer AOT using the DNB measaurements over small cities in Korea at night. After further development and refinement in the future, the developed retrieval algorithm is expected to produce nighttime aerosol information which is not operationally available over Korea.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.157-175
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• 2000

A synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system is able to provide all-weather, day-and- night superior imaging capability of the earth surface, and thus is extremely useful in surveillance for both civil and military applications. In this paper, the X-band high resolution spaceborne SAR system design is demonstrated with the key design performance for a given mission and system requirements characterized by the small satellite system. The SAR multi-mode imaging technique is presented with a critical parameter assessment, and the standard mode results are analyzed in terms of the image quality performances. In line with the system requirement X-band SAR payload and ground reception/processing subsystems are designed and the major design results are presented with the key performance characteristics. This small satellite SAR system shows the wide range of imaging capability with high resolution, and proves to be an effective surveillance systems in the light weight, high performance and cost-effective points of view.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.484-489
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• 2014

In this paper, we examined factors that influenced light pollution in Korean national parks during peak and off-peak tourist seasons. Cloud-and moonlight-free nighttime satellite images that were collected during October 2012(for peak season) and January 2013(for off-peak season) by the Day and Night Band (DNB) of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) sensor were used to estimate the levels of light pollution in 19 national parks (excluding the Bukhansan and Mudeungsan National Parks). Bootstrapping regression analyses were conducted to examine the effects of socioeconomic and policy factors on light pollution in the study national parks for peak and off-peak tourist seasons, separately. The characteristics of light pollution in the national parks varied by season. During the peak tourist season, light pollution in the national parks were affected more by night lights nearby the parks than those within in the parks, while in the off-peak season, light sources in the parks were more important. Scattering of light emitted from hotels and other recreational facilities outside the parks that led to the sky glow effect can be attributed to the greater impact of night lights nearby the parks during the peak season. This result suggests that regulating light pollution nearby the park areas is needed to mitigate light pollution in the national parks, especially in a peak tourist season.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.69-84
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• 2021

Awareness of boats is a main issue in areas of fishery management, illegal fishing, and maritime traffic, etc. For the awareness, Automatic Identification System (AIS) and Vessel-Pass System (V-PASS) have been widely used to collect the boat-related information. However, only using these systems makes it difficult to collect the accurate information. Recently, satellite-based data has been increasingly used as a cooperative system. In 2015, U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) developed a boat detection algorithm using Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Day & Night Band (DNB) data. Although the detections have been widely utilized in many publications, it is difficult to estimate the night-time fishing boats immediately. Particularly, it is difficult to estimate the threshold due to the lunar irradiation effect. This effect must be corrected to apply a single specific threshold. In this study, the moon phase was considered as the main frequency of this effect. Considering the moon phase, relational expressions are derived and then used as offsets for relative correction. After the correction, it shows a significant reduction in the standard deviation of the threshold compared to the threshold of NOAA. Through the correction, this study can set a constant threshold every day without determination of different thresholds. In conclusion, this study can achieve the detection applying the single specific threshold regardless of the moon phase.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.617-623
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• 2019

Numerous water disasters have recently occurred all over the world, including South Korea, due to global climate change in recent years. As water-related disasters occur extensively and their sites are difficult for people to access, it is necessary to monitor them using satellites. The Ministry of Environment and K-water plan to launch the next-generation medium satellite No. 5 (water resource/water disaster satellite) equipped with C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) in 2025. C-band SAR has the advantage of being able to observe water resources twice a day at a high resolution both day and night, regardless of weather conditions. Currently, RADARSAT-2 and Sentinel-1 equipped with C-band SAR achieve the purpose of their launch and are used in various environmental fields such as forest structure detection and coastline change monitoring, as well as for unique purposes including the detection of flooding, drought and soil moisture change, utilizing the advantages of SAR. As such, this study aimed to analyze the characteristics of the next-generation medium satellite No. 5 and its application in environmental fields. Our findings showed that it can be used to improve the degree of precision of existing environmental spatial information such as the classification accuracy of land cover map in environmental field works. It also enables us to observe forests and water resources in North Korea that are difficult to access geographically. It is ultimately expected that this will enable the monitoring of the whole Korean Peninsula in various environmental fields, and help in relevant responses and policy supports.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.101-120
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• 2000

A synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system can provide all-weather, day and night, superior imaging capability, and thus is very useful in surveillance for military applications. In this paper, a X-band spaceborne SAR system design concept is introduced with the key design parameters for mission and system requirements characterized by small satellite system. The SAR imaging mode design procedure is presented, and the standard imaging mode design results are analyzed as an example. In line with the given mission and system requirements, the X-band SAR payload and ground reception/processing subsystems are designed and presented with the key design results. The designed small satellite SAR system shows the wide range of imaging capability, and proves to be an effective surveillance system in light-weight, high-performance and cost-effective points of view.

• Journal of Ship and Ocean Technology
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.34-48
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• 2006

The visual observation of wave condition depends on the observer's skill and experience. Also, the environmental conditions such as light and cloud heavily influence the visual measurement. In the speed test of sea trial, the wave measurement should be objective and accurate. In this paper, the problems of visual measurement and their effects on speed test are described. To overcome those problems, we developed the wave measurement system using commercial marine X-band radar, WaveFinder. The system installed at inland base was calibrated by waverider buoy and then the system's operability was defined. Onboard tests had also been performed three times for formal wave measurement to correct the ship speed. The results illustrated very good agreement with visual observation by experts. It can be concluded that the system would be useful to measure wave and swell information for the sea trial, irrespective of day and night.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.265-278
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• 2019

Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Day/Night Band (DNB) data help to enable rapid emergency responses through detection of the artificial and natural disasters occurring at night. The DNB data without correction of lunar irradiance effect distributed by Korea Ocean Science Center (KOSC) has advantage for rapid change detection because of direct receiving. In this study, radiance differences according to the phase of the moon was analyzed for urban and mountain areas in Korean Peninsula using the DNB data directly receiving to KOSC. Lunar irradiance correction algorithm was proposed for the change detection. Relative correction was performed by regression analysis between the selected pixels considering the land cover classification in the reference DNB image during the new moon and the input DNB image. As a result of daily difference image analysis, the brightness value change in urban area and mountain area was ${\pm}30$ radiance and below ${\pm}1$ radiance respectively. The object based change detection was performed after the extraction of the main object of interest based on the average image of time series data in order to reduce the matching and geometric error between DNB images. The changes in brightness occurring in mountainous areas were effectively detected after the calibration of lunar irradiance effect, and it showed that the developed technology could be used for real time change detection.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
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• 2022.06a
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• pp.211-212
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• 2022

지구온난화에 따른 우리나라 주변 환경의 변화와 최근 중국 불법어선의 연근해 어업자원의 고갈 등으로 인해 우리나라 연근해 어족자원을 보호할 필요성이 증대되고 있으며, 지속 가능한 어업을 위해서는 어획물의 종류와 양을 정확히 파악하고 불법 어업에 대한 철저한 감시 및 관리가 필요하다. 시공간적으로 다양하게 변하는 생태 및 어장 환경 정보와 선박에 대한 정보를 통해 해양관측과 위성 원격탐사를 동시에 이용함으로써 근해와 원양 생물자원 실태를 관측하는 것이 가능하다. 본 연구에서는 야간 불빛 위성 Suomi-NPP (Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership) 및 후속위성인 NOAA-20의 VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) DNB (Day & Night Band) 영상을 이용하여 야간 불빛을 활용하고자 한다. 이 불빛 위성 자료를 이용하여 야간에 조업하는 어선 선단의 공간 분포를 분석할 수 있다. 또한 이 불빛 위성 자료와 AIS 자료를 상호 비교하여, 불빛 위성 자료를 통해 실제 선박의 위치 정보를 검색하는 것이 가능함을 검증하고자 한다.