• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.507-520
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• 2007

Satellite passive microwave(PM) sensors have been observing polar sea ice concentration(SIC), ice temperature, and snow depth since 1970s. Among them SIC is playing an important role in the various studies as it is considered the first factor for the monitoring of global climate and environment changes. Verification and correction of PM SIC is essential for this purpose. In this study, we calculated SIC from KOMPSAT-1 EOC images obtained from Arctic sea ice edges from July to August 2005 and compared with SSM/I SIC calculated from NASA Team(NT) algorithm. When we have no consideration of sea ice types, EOC and SSM/I NT SIC showed low correlation coefficient of 0.574. This is because there are differences in spatial resolution and observing time between two sensors, and the temporal and spatial variation of sea ice was high in summer Arctic ice edge. For the verification of SSM/I NT SIC according to sea ice types, we divided sea ice into land-fast ice, pack ice, and drift ice from EOC images, and compared them with SSM/I NT SIC corresponding to each ice type. The concentration of land-fast ice between EOC and SSM/I SIC were calculated very similarly to each other with the mean difference of 0.38%. This is because the temporal and spatial variation of land-fast ice is small, and the snow condition on the ice surface is relatively dry. In case of pack ice, there were lots of ice ridge and new ice that are known to be underestimated by NT algorithm. SSM/I NT SIC were lower than EOC SIC by 19.63% in average. In drift ice, SSM/I NT SIC showed 20.17% higher than EOC SIC in average. The sea ice with high concentration could be included inside the wide IFOV of SSM/I because the drift ice was located near the edge of pack ice. It is also suggested that SSM/I NT SIC overestimated the drift ice covered by wet snow.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.517-525
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• 2013

Time-series data of Normal Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) obtained by the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS) satellite imagery gives a waveform that reveals the characteristics of the phenology. The waveform can be decomposed into harmonics of various periods by the Fourier transformation. The resulting $n^{th}$ harmonics represent the amount of NDVI change in a period of a year divided by n. The values of each harmonics or their relative relation have been used to classify the vegetation species and to build a vegetation map. Here, we propose a method to estimate the annual amount of carbon absorbed on the forest from the $1^{st}$ harmonic NDVI value. The $1^{st}$ harmonic value represents the amount of growth of the leaves. By the allometric equation of trees, the growth of leaves can be considered to be proportional to the total amount of carbon absorption. We compared the $1^{st}$ harmonic NDVI values of the 6220 sample points with the reference data of the carbon absorption obtained by the field survey in the forest of South Korea. The $1^{st}$ harmonic values were roughly proportional to the amount of carbon absorption irrespective of the species and ages of the vegetation. The resulting proportionality constant between the carbon absorption and the $1^{st}$ harmonic value was 236 tCO2/5.29ha/year. The total amount of carbon dioxide absorption in the forest of South Korea over the last ten years has been estimated to be about 56 million ton, and this coincides with the previous reports obtained by other methods. Considering that the amount of the carbon absorption becomes a kind of currency like carbon credit, our method is very useful due to its generality.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.109-126
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• 2014

We improved the Land Surface Emissivity (LSE) data (Kongju National University LSE v.2: KNULSE_v2) over the Communication, Ocean and Meteorological Satellite (COMS) observation region using recent(2009-2012) Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data. The surface emissivity was derived using the Vegetation Cover Method (VCM) based on the assumption that the pixel is only composed of ground and vegetation. The main issues addressed in this study are as follows: 1) the impacts of snow cover are included using Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI) data, 2) the number of channels is extended from two (11, 12 ${\mu}m$) to four channels (3.7, 8.7, 11, 12 ${\mu}m$), 3) the land cover map data is also updated using the optimized remapping of the five state-of-the-art land cover maps, and 4) the latest look-up table for the emissivity of land surface according to the land cover is used. The updated emissivity data showed a strong seasonal variation with high and low values for the summer and winter, respectively. However, the surface emissivity over the desert or evergreen tree areas showed a relatively weak seasonal variation irrespective of the channels. The snow cover generally increases the emissivity of 3.7, 8.7, and 11 ${\mu}m$ but decreases that of 12 ${\mu}m$. As the results show, the pattern correlation between the updated emissivity data and the MODIS LSE data is clearly increased for the winter season, in particular, the 11 ${\mu}m$. However, the differences between the two emissivity data are slightly increased with a maximum increase in the 3.7 ${\mu}m$. The emissivity data updated in this study can be used for the improvement of accuracy of land surface temperature derived from the infrared channel data of COMS.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.229-241
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• 2006

Global air temperature has risen by $0.6^{\circ}C$ over the last one hundred years due to increased atmospheric greenhouse gases. Moreover, this global warming trend is projected to continue in the future. This study was carried out to evaluate spatial variations in rice production areas by simulating rice-growth and development with projected high resolution climate data in Korea far 2011-2100, which was geospatially interpolated from the 25 km gridded data based on the IPCC SRES A2 emission scenario. Satellite remote sensing data were used to pinpoint the rice-growing areas, and corresponding climate data were aggregated to represent the official 'crop reporting county'. For the simulation experiment, we used a CERES-Rice model modified by introducing two equations to calculate the leaf appearance rate based on the effective temperature and existing leaf number and the final number of leaves based on day-length in the photoperiod sensitive phase of rice. We tested the performance of this model using data-sets obtained from transplanting dates and nitrogen fertilization rates experiments over three years (2002 to 2004). The simulation results showed a good performance of this model in heading date prediction [$R^2$=0.9586 for early (Odaebyeo), $R^2$=0.9681 for medium (Hwasungbyeo), and $R^2$=0.9477 for late (Dongjinbyeo) maturity cultivars]. A modified version of CERES-Rice was used to simulate the growth and development of three Japonica varieties, representing early, medium, and late maturity classes, to project crop status for climatological normal years between 2011 and 2100. In order to compare the temporal changes, three sets of data representing 3 climatological years (2011-2040, 2041-2070, and 2071-2100) were successively used to run the model. Simulated growth and yield data of the three Japonica cultivars under the observed climate for 1971-2000 was set as a reference. Compared with the current normal, heading date was accelerated by 7 days for 2011-2040 and 20 days for 2071-2100. Physiological maturity was accelerated by 15 days for 2011-2040 and 30 days for 2071-2100. Rice yield was in general reduced by 6-25%, 3-26%, and 3-25% per 10a in early, medium, and late maturity classes, respectively. However, mid to late maturing varieties showed an increased yield in northern Gyeonggi Province and in most of Kwangwon Province in 2071-2100.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.80-92
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• 2007

Forest fire is the dominant large-scale disturbance mechanism in the Korean temperate forest, and it strongly influences forest structure and function. Moreover burn severity incorporates both short- and long-term post-fire effects on the local and regional environment. Burn severity is defined by the degree to which an ecosystem has changed owing to the fire. Vegetation rehabilitation may specifically vary according to burn severity after fire. To understand burn severity and process of vegetation rehabilitation at the damaged area after large-fire is required a lot of man powers and budgets. However the analysis of burn severity in the forest area using satellite imagery can acquire rapidly information and more objective results remotely in the large-fire area. Space and airbone sensors have been used to map area burned, assess characteristics of active fires, and characterize post-fire ecological effects. For classifying fire damaged area and analyzing burn severity of Samcheok fire area occurred in 2000, Cheongyang fire in 2002, and Yangyang fire in 2005 we utilized Normalized Burn Ratio(NBR) technique. The NBR is temporally differenced between pre- and post-fire datasets to determine the extent and degree of change detected from burning. In this paper we use pre- and post-fire imagery from the Landsat TM and ETM+ imagery to compute the NBR and evaluate large-scale patterns of burn severity at 30m spatial resolution. 65% in the Samcheok fire area, 91% in the Cheongyang fire area and 65% in the Yangyang fire area were corresponded to burn severity class above 'High'. Therefore the use of a remotely sensed Differenced Normalized Burn Ratio(${\Delta}NBR$) by RS and GIS allows for the burn severity to be quantified spatially by mapping damaged domain and burn severity across large-fire area.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.477-487
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• 2010

In North Korea, forests were intensively degraded by forest land reclamation for food production and firewood collection since the mid-1970s. These degraded forests have to be certainly recovered for economic support, environmental protection and disaster prevention. In order to provide detailed land cover information of forest recovery project (A/R CDM), this study was focused to develop an improved classification method for degraded forest using 2.5m SPOT-5 pan-sharpened image. The degraded forest of North Korea shows various different types of texture. This study used GLCM texture bands of segmented image with spectral bands during forest cover classification. When scale factor 40/shape factor 0.3 was used as a parameter set to generate segment image, segment image was generated on suitable segment scale that could classify types of degraded forest. Forest land cover types were classified with an optimum band combination of Band1, Band2, band3, GLCM dissimilarity (band2), GLCM homogeneity (band2) and GLCM standard deviation (band3). Segment-based classification method using spectral bands and texture bands reached an 80.4% overall accuracy, but the method using only spectral bands yielded an 70.3% overall accuracy. As using spectral and texture bands, a classification accuracy of stocked forest and unstocked forest showed an increase of 23~25%. In this research, SPOT-5 pan-sharpened high-resolution satellite image could provide a very useful information for classifying the forest cover of North Korea in which field data collection was not available for ground truth data and verification directly. And segment-based classification method using texture information improved classification accuracy of degraded forest.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.213-222
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• 1998

Electro-Optical Camera(EOC) is the main payload of the KOrea Multi-Purpose SATellite(KOMPSAT) with the mission of cartography to build up a digital map of Korean territory including a Digital Terrain Elevation Map(DTEM). This instalment which comprises EOC Sensor Assembly and EOC Electronics Assembly produces the panchromatic images of 6.6 m GSD with a swath wider than 17 km by push-broom scanning and spacecraft body pointing in a visible range of wavelength, 510~730 nm. The high resolution panchromatic image is to be collected for 2 minutes during 98 minutes of orbit cycle covering about 800 km along ground track, over the mission lifetime of 3 years with the functions of programmable gain/offset and on-board image data storage. The image of 8 bit digitization, which is collected by a full reflective type F8.3 triplet without obscuration, is to be transmitted to Ground Station at a rate less than 25 Mbps. EOC was elaborated to have the performance which meets or surpasses its requirements of design phase. The spectral response, the modulation transfer function, and the uniformity of all the 2592 pixel of CCD of EOC are illustrated as they were measured for the convenience of end-user. The spectral response was measured with respect to each gain setup of EOC and this is expected to give the capability of generating more accurate panchromatic image to the users of EOC data. The modulation transfer function of EOC was measured as greater than 16 % at Nyquist frequency over the entire field of view, which exceeds its requirement of larger than 10 %. The uniformity that shows the relative response of each pixel of CCD was measured at every pixel of the Focal Plane Array of EOC and is illustrated for the data processing.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.383-389
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• 2009

The main objective of the research is a feasibility study on the intertidal zone using a X-band radar satellite, TerraSAR-X. The TerraSAR-X data have been acquired in the west coast of Korea where large tidal flats, Ganghwa and Yeongjong tidal flats, are developed. Investigations include: 1) waterline and backscattering characteristics of the high resolution X-band images in tidal flats; 2) polarimetric signature of halophytes (or salt marsh plants), specifically Suaeda japonica; and 3) phase and coherence of interferometric pairs. Waterlines from TerraSAR-X data satisfy the requirement of horizontal accuracy of 60 m that corresponds to 20 cm in average height difference while current other spaceborne SAR systems could not meet the requirement. HH-polarization was the best for extraction of waterline, and its geometric position is reliable due to the short wavelength and accurate orbit control of the TerraSAR-X. A halophyte or salt marsh plant, Suaeda japonica, is an indicator of local sea level change. From X-band ground radar measurements, a dual polarization of VV/VH-pol. is anticipated to be the best for detection of the plant with about 9 dB difference at 35 degree incidence angle. However, TerraSAR-X HH/TV dual polarization was turned to be more effective for salt marsh monitoring. The HH-HV value was the maximum of about 7.9 dB at 31.6 degree incidence angle, which is fairly consistent with the results of X-band ground radar measurement. The boundary of salt marsh is effectively traceable specifically by TerraSAR-X cross-polarization data. While interferometric phase is not coherent within normal tidal flat, areas of salt marsh where the landization is preceded show coherent interferometric phases regardless of seasons or tide conditions. Although TerraSAR-X interferometry may not be effective to directly measure height or changes in tidal flat surface, TanDEM-X or other future X-band SAR tandem missions within one-day interval would be useful for mapping tidal flat topography.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.363-373
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• 2010

"Curve number" (CN) indicates the runoff potential of an area. The US Soil Conservation Service (SCS)'s CN method is a simple, widely used, and efficient method for estimating the runoff from a rainfall event in a particular area, especially in ungauged basins. The use of soil maps requested from end-users was dominant up to about 80% of total use for estimating CN based rainfall-runoff. This study introduce the use of soil maps with respect to hydrologic and watershed management focused on hydrologic soil group and a case study resulted in assessing effective rainfall and runoff hydrograph based on SCS-CN method in a small watershed. The ratio of distribution areas for hydrologic soil group based on detailed soil map (1:25,000) of Korea were 42.2% (A), 29.4% (B), 18.5% (C), and 9.9% (D) for HSG 1995, and 35.1% (A), 15.7% (B), 5.5% (C), and 43.7% (D) for HSG 2006, respectively. The ratio of D group in HSG 2006 accounted for 43.7% of the total and 34.1% reclassified from A, B, and C groups of HSG 1995. Similarity between HSG 1995 and 2006 was about 55%. Our study area was located in Sosu-myeon, Goesan-gun including an approx. 44 $km^2$-catchment, Chungchungbuk-do. We used a digital elevation model (DEM) to delineate the catchments. The soils were classified into 4 hydrologic soil groups on the basis of measured infiltration rate and a model of the representative soils of the study area reported by Jung et al. 2006. Digital soil maps (1:5,000) were used for classifying hydrologic soil groups on the basis of soil series unit. Using high resolution satellite images, we delineated the boundary of each field or other parcel on computer screen, then surveyed the land use and cover in each. We calculated CN for each and used those data and a land use and cover map and a hydrologic soil map to estimate runoff. CN values, which are ranged from 0 (no runoff) to 100 (all precipitation runs off), of the catchment were 73 by HSG 1995 and 79 by HSG 2006, respectively. Each runoff response, peak runoff and time-to-peak, was examined using the SCS triangular synthetic unit hydrograph, and the results of HSG 2006 showed better agreement with the field observed data than those with use of HSG 1995.