• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.229-241
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• 2024

With the advancement of big data processing technology using cloud platforms, access, processing, and analysis of large-volume data such as satellite imagery have recently been significantly improved. In this study, the Change Detection Method, a relatively simple technique for retrieving soil moisture, was applied to the backscattering coefficient values of pre-processed Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite imagery product based on Google Earth Engine (GEE), one of those platforms, to estimate the surface soil moisture for six observatories within the Yongdam Dam watershed in South Korea for the period of 2015 to 2023, as well as the watershed average. Subsequently, a correlation analysis was conducted between the estimated values and actual measurements, along with an examination of the applicability of GEE. The results revealed that the surface soil moisture estimated for small areas within the soil moisture observatories of the watershed exhibited low correlations ranging from 0.1 to 0.3 for both VH and VV polarizations, likely due to the inherent measurement accuracy of the SAR satellite imagery and variations in data characteristics. However, the surface soil moisture average, which was derived by extracting the average SAR backscattering coefficient values for the entire watershed area and applying moving averages to mitigate data uncertainties and variability, exhibited significantly improved results at the level of 0.5. The results obtained from estimating soil moisture using GEE demonstrate its utility despite limitations in directly conducting desired analyses due to preprocessed SAR data. However, the efficient processing of extensive satellite imagery data allows for the estimation and evaluation of soil moisture over broad ranges, such as long-term watershed averages. This highlights the effectiveness of GEE in handling vast satellite imagery datasets to assess soil moisture. Based on this, it is anticipated that GEE can be effectively utilized to assess long-term variations of soil moisture average in major dam watersheds, in conjunction with soil moisture observation data from various locations across the country in the future.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.75-86
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• 2005

Acoustic survey for density and biomass estimate of Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba, was conducted in the large area between South Shetland Islands and South Orkney Islands, during November 30-December 30, 2002. Considering oceanographic and geographic properties, the study area was divided into six sub-regions. Acoustic system and frequency used in the survey were quantitative echo sounder (Simrad Ek 500) and 38, 120-kHz split beam transducers. In order to discriminate krill aggregations in all acoustic signal, difference of mean volume backscattering strength $({\Delta}MVBS)$ method of the two frequencies was introduced. Averaged krill density for the overall surveyed area was $23.5g/m^2$, and spatially averaged estimates of krill density were $44.9g/m^2$ (north of the South Shetland Islands), $30.3g/m^2$ (Bransfield Strait), $11.3g/m^2$ (near the Elephant Island), $13.6g/m^2$ (north of the Elephant Island), $18.1g/m^2$(between Elephant Island and South Orkney Islands) and $21.7g/m^2$(northwest of the South Orkney Islands) at each sub-area. In the two sub-regions with surveyed area, estimated krill biomass in the north of the Elephant Island was 0.315 million tones with a CV of 18.35% $(6,766mile^2)$, and between Elephant Island and South Orkey Islands was 1.26 million tones with a CV of 9.45% $(20,299mile^2)$. As a whole, the krill density in the early summer season was low level, comparing with that of January-February. This suggested that major krill swarms in the around South Shetland Islands were reached in the mid-summer seasons from western part of the Antarctic Peninsula, and the low krill density also affects the density variation of the krill between Elephant Island and South Orkney Islands.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.180-189
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• 2013

Geophysical exploration is widely used to develop strategic mineral resources in the world because of its efficient method in detecting mineralized zones in the metallic ore deposit. It is important to understand the physical properties of the stratum so that geophysical data can be more accurately interpreted. This paper is to comprehend physical properties of the rock at the Gagok mine, a typical skarn deposit in Korea. Thus, laboratory tests were conducted on specimens of ore and host rocks which were collected from rock outcrops and drill cores at the Gagok mine. Using the measurement system of rock physical property, we investigated the density, magnetic susceptibility, resistivity, and spectral induced polarization. According to the results, all physical properties of specimens had wide differences depending on contents of ore minerals, which are formed by skarnization. Especially, using the chargeability and time constant from the calculated spectral induced polarization data by the Cole-Cole inversion, we could estimate the volume contents as well as the grain size of the sulfide minerals. Therefore, the spectral induced polarization technique may be considered a useful method when exploring metallic ore deposit with sulfide minerals.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.116-126
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• 2008

In gas hydrate survey, seismic amplitude and frequency characteristics play a very important role in determining whether gas hydrate exists. According to the variation of source frequency and scatterer size, we study seismic amplitude characteristics using elastic modeling applied at staggered grids. Generally speaking, scattering occurs in proportion to the square of source frequency and the scatterer volume, which has an effect on seismic amplitude. The higher source frequency is, the more scattering occurs in gas hydrate bearing zone. Therefore, BSR is hardly observed in high frequencies. On the other side, amplitude blanking zone and BSR is clearly observed in lower frequencies although the resolution is poor as a whole. Seismic reflections traveling through free-gas layer below gas hydrate bearing zone decay so severely a high frequency component that a low frequency term is dominant. Amplitude anomaly of BSR result from high acoustic impedance contrast due to free-gas, which is a very crucial factor to estimate gas hydrate bearing zone. Seismic frequency analysis is carried out using wavelet transform method that frequency component could be decomposed with time variation. In application of wavelet transform to the seismic physical experiments data, we can observe that reflections traveling through air layer, which corresponds to the free-gas layer, decay a high frequency component.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2019

Well logging technologies are used to measure the physical properties of reservoirs through boreholes. These technologies have been utilized to understand reservoir characteristics, such as porosity, fluid saturation, etc., using equations based on rock physics models. The analysis of well logs is performed by selecting a reliable rock physics model adequate for reservoir conditions or characteristics, comparing the results using the Archie's equation or simandoux method, and determining the most feasible reservoir properties. In this study, we developed a joint inversion algorithm to estimate physical properties in shaly sandstone reservoirs based on the pre-existing algorithm for sandstone reservoirs. For this purpose, we proposed a rock physics model with respect to shale volume, constructed the Jacobian matrix, and performed the sensitivity analysis for understanding the relationship between well-logging data and rock properties. The joint inversion algorithm was implemented by adopting the least-squares method using probabilistic approach. The developed algorithm was applied to the well-logging data obtained from the Colony gas sandstone reservoir. The results were compared with the simandox method and the joint inversion algorithms of sand stone reservoirs.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.127-135
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• 1998

The Born approximation is widely used for solving the complex scattering problems in electromagnetics. Approximating total internal electric field by the background field is reasonable for small material contrasts as long as scatterer is not too large and the frequency is not too high. However in many geophysical applications, moderate and high conductivity contrasts cause both real and imaginary part of internal electric field to differ greatly from background. In the extended Born approximation, which can improve the accuracy of Born approximation dramatically, the total electric field in the integral over the scattering volume is approximated by the background electric field projected to a depolarization tensor. The finite difference and elements methods are usually used in EM scattering problems with a 2D model and a 3D source, due to their capability for simulating complex subsurface conductivity distributions. The price paid for a 3D source is that many wavenumber domain solutions and their inverse Fourier transform must be computed. In these differential equation methods, all the area including homogeneous region should be discretized, which increases the number of nodes and matrix size. Therefore, the differential equation methods need a lot of computing time and large memory. In this study, EM modeling program for a 2D model and a 3D source is developed, which is based on the extended Born approximation. The solution is very fast and stable. Using the program, crosshole EM responses with a vertical magnetic dipole source are obtained and the results are compared with those of 3D integral equation solutions. The agreement between the integral equation solution and extended Born approximation is remarkable within the entire frequency range, but degrades with the increase of conductivity contrast between anomalous body and background medium. The extended Born approximation is accurate in the case conductivity contrast is lower than 1:10. Therefore, the location and conductivity of the anomalous body can be estimated effectively by the extended Born approximation although the quantitative estimate of conductivity is difficult for the case conductivity contrast is too high.