• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.34 no.6_1
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• pp.969-979
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• 2018

This paper presents reflection symmetry of polarimetric SAR over the Amazon rainforest in terms of correlation coefficients between the pairs of HH- and HV-pol and VV- and VH-pol data by ALOS PALSAR. The reflection symmetry is defined as a non-zero correlation between HH- and HV-pol and VV- and VH-pol over natural distributed targets, and is a fundamental assumption for cross-talk calibration coefficient computation and for three-component decomposition for polarimetric SAR data. The Amazon rainforest is especially one of the common global reference sites for the reflection symmetry. The correlation coefficients for the pairs of reflection symmetry obtained in this study range from 0.018 to 0.097. The results imply that there exists a non-negligible dependency between co-pol and cross-pol in the distributed natural targets, and consequently the non-zero correlation must be considered as a potential contribution to errors of spaceborne SAR polarimetry to some extent.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.287-295
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• 2010

Water level of the Tonle Sap is largely influenced by the Mekong River. During the wet season, the lacustrine landform and vegetated areas are covered with water. Change detection in this area provides information required for human activities and sustainable development around the Tonle Sap. In order to detect the changes in the Tonle Sap floodplain, fifteen ALOS-PALSAR L-band data acquired from January 2007 to January 2009 and examined in this study. Since L-band is able to penetrate into vegetation cover, it enables us to study the changes according to water level of floodplain developed in the rainforest. Four types of images were constructed and studied include 1) ratio images, 2) correlation coefficient images, 3) texture feature ratio images and 4) multi-color composite images. Change images (in each 46 day interval) extracted from the ratio images, coherence images and texture feature ratio images were formed for detecting land cover change. Two RGB images are also obtained by compositing three images acquired in the early, in the middle and at the end of the rainy season in 2007 and 2008. Combination of the methods results that the change images present the relationship between vegetation and water level, leaf fall forest as well as cultivation and harvest crop.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2010

This paper proposes a new decomposition technique for polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. This new decomposition technique is based on the degree of polarization (DoP) and co-polarized phase-difference (CPD) of the measured polarimetric backscattering coefficients. This decomposition technique is compared with the existing three- and four-component decomposition techniques with the ALOS PALSAR full polarimetric L-band data acquired in 2009. It is shown that the new decomposition technique is better or comparable to the existing techniques for the study areas such as sea, bare soil, forest, and urban area.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• v.1
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• pp.7-10
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• 2006

Four programs, i.e. TRMM, ADEOS2, ASTER, and ALOS are going on in Japanese Earth Observation programs. TRMM and ASTER are operating well, and TRMM operation will be continued to 2009. ADEOS2 was failed, but AMSR-E on Aqua is operating. ALOS (Advanced Land Observing Satellite) was successfully launched on $24^{th}$ Jan. 2006. ALOS carries three instruments, i.e., PRISM (Panchromatic Remote Sensing Instrument for Stereo Mapping), AVNIR-2 (Advanced Visible and Near Infrared Radiometer), and PALSAR (Phased Array L band Synthetic Aperture Radar). PRISM is a 3 line panchromatic push broom scanner with 2.5m IFOV. AVNIR-2 is a 4 channel multi spectral scanner with 10m IFOV. PALSAR is a full polarimetric active phased array SAR. PALSAR has many observation modes including full polarimetric mode and scan SAR mode. After the unfortunate accident of ADEOS2, JAXA still have plans of Earth observation programs. Next generation satellites will be launched in 2008-2012 timeframe. They are GOSAT (Greenhouse Gas Observation Satellite), GCOM-W and GCOM-C (ADEOS-2 follow on), and GPM (Global Precipitation Mission) core satellite. GOSAT will carry 2 instruments, i.e. a green house gas sensor and a cloud/aerosol imager. The main sensor is a Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) and covers 0.76 to 15 ${\mu}m$ region with 0.2 to 0.5 $cm^{-1}$ resolution. GPM is a joint project with NASA and will carry two instruments. JAXA will develop DPR (Dual frequency Precipitation Radar) which is a follow on of PR on TRMM. Another project is EarthCare. It is a joint project with ESA and JAXA is going to provide CPR (Cloud Profiling Radar). Discussions on future Earth Observation programs have been started including discussions on ALOS F/O.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.418-421
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• 2008

Wenchuan earthquake (Mw 7.9) occurred in Sichuan province, China, May 2008 had resulted in a huge fault displacement around the Lungmenshan fault. Preliminary results of the fault displacement observed by ALOS PALSAR interferometry are presented. The surface deformation by the Wenchuan earthquake was reported up to 10m consisting of thrust- and right-slip compnents. A significant reduction in ionospheric density was also reported. Twenty differential interferograms and twenty multiple aperture SAR interferometry (MAI) pairs were produced over four ALOS tracks. It was observed from differential interferograms that i) LOS deformation decreases steadily from northnorthwest of the Longmenshan fault to the fault, ii) the LOS deformation sharply increases at areas around the fault, and iii) the decrease of the LOS deformation is observed from the Longmenshan fault to the south-southeast of the fault. Horizontal movement of the reverse fault displacement can better be observed by MAI technique, and the MAI phases show that i) the south-southeast directional reverse fault displacement (negative along-track deformation for an ascending track) of the north-northwest block gradually increases to the Longmenshan fault, ii) the reverse fault movement of the south-southeast block is sharply reversed to the north-northwest of the fault, and iii) the northnorthwest movement gradually decreases to the south-southeast of fault. Although the Lonmenshan Fault line is a center of earthquake epicenter, the boundary of surface movement exists to the north-northeast of the fault. Since the ionosphere was not stable even forty days after the mainshock, MAI phases were seriously corrupted by ionospheric effect. It is necessary to acquire more data when the ionosphere recovered to a normal state.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.503-512
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• 2012

We performed DInSAR (Differential Interferometric SAR) and SBAS (Small BAseline Subset) analysis using spaceborne SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) in order to detect a surface subsidence in Taebaek area, Kangwon, which are suitable to the monitoring of broad and inaccessible areas. During the period from October 2006 to June 2010, we acquired twenty-three ALOS PALSAR data sets (path/frame=425/730) for this study. The ninety-six differential interferograms with a perpendicular baseline less than 1100 m were constructed by ROI_PAC, then the mean velocity map of surface displacement was derived from SBAS analysis. As a result, it was confirmed that the ground displacement occurred about 4 cm/yr at Seokgong-Jangseong and Kyungdong mines and 2 cm/yr at Saehan-Eoryong-Jungdong and Hwangji mines in Taebaek area, Kangwon. It seems that the subsidence in study area is closely related to mining activities because the most of subsiding areas are well matched with mining areas. The subsidence at Kyungdong mine shows continuous and fast velocity in about $2{\times}2$ km area. Therefore the further analysis and the effort to prevent disaster are required in this area.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.375-384
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• 2013

Most of regions within the city of Mokpo, located on the southwest coast of the Korean Peninsula, are subjected to significant subsidence because about 70% of the city is land reclaimed from the sea (Kim et al., 2005). In this study, we aimed to estimate the rate of subsidence over Mokpo by using PALSAR L-band dataset from 2006 to 2010. Time series analysis was performed as well using GPS surveying data from 2010 to 2012. Results from these two independent datasets are then compared and analyzed over the common period of time. GPS data processing provides the results of seasonal variation on the surface, that is, via repeatedly rising and falling in association with the periodic cycle. Therefore, a time series analysis was performed to calculate the rate of ground subsidence. The deformation rates calculated for the same point are 3.89cm/yr and 2.65cm/yr from the GPS data and SAR data, respectively. SAR and GPS data processing results show a very similar pattern in terms of magnitude of annual subsidence. Thus, if the two datasets are integrated together, new modeling on ground subsidence is feasible. Lastly, subsidence was detected in a landfill area in the city of Mokpo, which has been continuously occurring through 2012.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.389-397
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• 2013

Recently high spatial resolution space-borne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) systems have launched and have been operated successfully. Interferometric SAR (InSAR) processing with the space-based high resolution observations acquired by these systems can provide more detail information for various geodetic applications. Coherence is regarded as a critical parameter in the evaluating the quality of an InSAR pair. In this study, we evaluate the coherence characteristics of high-resolution data acquired by TerraSAR-X (X-band) and ALOS PALSAR (L-band) and intermediate-resolution data acquired by Envisat ASAR (C-band) over western Texas, U.S.A. Our coherence analysis reveals that the high-resolution X-band TSX (3.1 cm) data has a high coherence level (0.3-0.6), similar to that of the L-band ALOS PALSAR data (23.5 cm) in short temporal baselines. Further more, the TSX coherence values are significantly higher than those of the C-band (5.6 cm) Envisat ASAR data. The higher coherence of the TSX dataset is a surprising result, because common scattering theories suggest that the longer wavelength SAR data maintain better coherence. In vegetated areas the shorter wavelength radar pulse interacts mostly with upper sections of the vegetation and, hence, does not provide good correlation over time in InSAR pairs. Thus, we suggest that the higher coherence values of the TSX data reflect the data's high-resolution, in which stable and coherent scatters are better maintained. Although, however, the TSX data show a very good coherence with short temporal baseline (11-33 days), the coherences are significantly degraded as the temporal baselines are increased. This result confirms previous studies showing that the coherence has a strong dependency on the temporal baseline.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.35 no.6_3
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• pp.1235-1249
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• 2019

Kilauea Volcano is one of the most active volcano in the world. In this study, we used the ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 satellite imagery to measure the surface deformation occurring near the summit of the Kilauea volcano from 2015 to 2017. In order to measure two-dimensional surface deformation, interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) and multiple aperture SAR interferometry (MAI) methods were performed using two interferometric pairs. To improve the precision of 2D measurement, we compared root-mean-squared deviation (RMSD) of the difference of measurement value as we change the effective antenna length and normalized squint value, which are factors that can affect the measurement performance of the MAI method. Through the compare, the values of the factors, which can measure deformation most precisely, were selected. After select optimal values of the factors, the RMSD values of the difference of the MAI measurement were decreased from 4.07 cm to 2.05 cm. In each interferograms, the maximum deformation in line-of-sight direction is -28.6 cm and -27.3 cm, respectively, and the maximum deformation in the along-track direction is 20.2 cm and 20.8 cm, in the opposite direction is -24.9 cm and -24.3 cm, respectively. After stacking the two interferograms, two-dimensional surface deformation mapping was performed, and a maximum surface deformation of approximately 30.4 cm was measured in the northwest direction. In addition, large deformation of more than 20 cm were measured in all directions. The measurement results show that the risk of eruption activity is increasing in Kilauea Volcano. The measurements of the surface deformation of Kilauea volcano from 2015 to 2017 are expected to be helpful for the study of the eruption activity of Kilauea volcano in the future.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.38 no.5_1
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• pp.447-460
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• 2022

It is well known that satellite synthetic aperture radar interferometry (InSAR) has been widely used for the observation of surface displacement owing to earthquakes, volcanoes, and subsidence very precisely. In wetlands where vegetation exists on the surface of the water, it is possible to create a water level change map with high spatial resolution over a wide area using the InSAR technique. Currently, a number of imaging radar satellites are in operation, and most of them support a ScanSAR mode observation to gather information over a large area at once. The Cienaga Grande de Santa Marta (CGSM) wetland, located in northern Colombia, is a vast wetland developed along the Caribbean coast. The CGSM wetlands face serious environmental threats from human activities such as reclamation for agricultural uses and residential purposes as well as natural causes such as sea level rise owing to climate change. Various restoration and protection plans have been conducted to conserve these invaluable environments in recognition of the ecological importance of the CGSM wetlands. Monitoring of water level changes in wetland is very important resources to understand the hydrologic characteristics and the in-situ water level gauge stations are usually utilized to measure the water level. Although it can provide very good temporal resolution of water level information, it is limited to fully understand flow pattern owing to its very coarse spatial resolution. In this study, we evaluate the L-band ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 ScanSAR mode to observe the water level change over the wide wetland area using the radar interferometric technique. In order to assess the quality of the interferometric product in the aspect of spatial resolution and coherence, we also utilized ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 stripmap high-resolution mode observations.