• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.31 no.1C
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• pp.46-54
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• 2006

The design method of synthetic aperture radar processor (SARP) in the critical design stage is to describe the processing algorithm, to estimate the fractional errors, and to set out the software (SW) and hardware (HW) mapping. The previous design methods for SARP are complex and depend on HW. Therefore, this paper proposes a critical design method that is of more general and independent of HW. This methodology can be applied for developing the space-based SARP using range-Doppler algorithm (RDA).

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.11 no.7
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• pp.1258-1270
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• 2000

A synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system is able to provide all-weather, day-and-night, high resolution imaging capability in the wide area of interest, 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 described with the key design parameters for the mission and system requirement characterized by the small satellite platform. The SAR imaging mode design technique is presented, and the standard imaging mode design results are analyzed with respect to image quality performance. In line with the system requirement, X-band SAR payload and ground reception/processing subsystems are designed and the key design results are demonstrated with the outstanding performance characteristics. The designed small satellite SAR system shows the wide range of imaging capability, and proves to be an effective surveillance systems in the light weight, high performance and cost-effective points of view.

• 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.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.38 no.6_3
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• pp.1761-1775
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• 2022

Due to unpredictable climate change, the frequency of occurrence of water-related disasters and the scale of damage are also continuously increasing. In terms of disaster management, it is essential to identify the damaged area in a wide area and monitor for mid-term and long-term forecasting. In the field of water disasters, research on remote sensing technology using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite images for wide-area monitoring is being actively conducted. Time-series analysis for monitoring requires a complex preprocessing process that collects a large amount of images and considers the noisy radar characteristics, and for this, a considerable amount of time is required. With the recent development of cloud computing technology, many platforms capable of performing spatiotemporal analysis using satellite big data have been proposed. Google Earth Engine (GEE)is a representative platform that provides about 600 satellite data for free and enables semi real time space time analysis based on the analysis preparation data of satellite images. Therefore, in this study, immediate water disaster damage detection and mid to long term time series observation studies were conducted using GEE. Through the Otsu technique, which is mainly used for change detection, changes in river width and flood area due to river flooding were confirmed, centered on the torrential rains that occurred in 2020. In addition, in terms of disaster management, the change trend of the time series waterbody from 2018 to 2022 was confirmed. The short processing time through javascript based coding, and the strength of spatiotemporal analysis and result expression, are expected to enable use in the field of water disasters. In addition, it is expected that the field of application will be expanded through connection with various satellite bigdata in the future.

• Journal of Satellite, Information and Communications
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.74-79
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• 2014

Conventional ScanSAR mode has been adopted in Envisat or Radarsat and played an important role to acquire wide swath SAR images for environmental surveillance. However, it suffers from the undesirable scalloping effect caused by non-homogeneity of antenna pattern while the image resolution is sacrificed. In recent years, TOPS mode has been suggested and put into use to overcome the disadvantages of the conventional scanning mode. Although TOPS mode is able to produce wide-swath SAR image in a short time interval, it demands highly complicated system design knowledge. In this paper, we present the operation principle of TOPS mode and a full SAR simulation is performed to generate TOPS SAR raw data. Azimuth antenna pattern is modified during TOPS mode operation and it is shown that the undesired scalloping effect is suppressed in the generated SAR image.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.497-510
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• 2010

In this study, comparisons of the backscattering coefficients and the coherence values which had been extracted from SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) images such as JERS-1, ENVISAT and ALOS satellites with surface roughness, surface geometric and soil moisture content were carried out. As the results of analysis using the backscattering coefficient and coherence values from SAR images, the coherence was shown high in the region containing more of mud fraction due to higher viscosity of fine grain-size. A lot of tidal channels were well developed in the Ganghwa tidal flat, affecting the drainage of seawater and subsequent soil moisture content by exposure time of tidal flat. The backscattering coefficient. consequently, appeared to be lower in sand flat and mix flat with decrease of soil moisture. In contrast, most mud flats were distributed at high elevation so that soil moisture was not much influenced by seawater. The backscattering coefficient in mud flat seemed to have a relationship with the density of tidal channel. In addition, lowering backscattering coefficients in the all Ganghwa tidal flat was observed when surface remnant water increased according to the amount of rainfall. The correlation between backscattering coefficient, coherence and sediment environment factors in the Ganghwa tidal flat was investigated. In the future, more quantitative spatial analysis will be helpful to well understand the sedimentary influence of various sediment environment factors.

• Journal of Satellite, Information and Communications
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.12-19
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• 2009

In the modern UAV systems, the role of radar payload has been increasing with its unique performance of day-and-night operation and see-through capability over hidden obstacles. Contrary to the satellite reconnaissance, UAV is expected to provide high resolution target detection and recognition capability while frequent flight missions would deliver enhanced SAR image and local information over the target area. STK(Satellite Tool Kit) is a professional space-analysis software widely used in all phases of a space system's life cycle. The simulation of STK is efficient and accurate relatively. In this paper, the author attempt to model the UAV operation and measure the expected SAR image quality. STK(Satellite Tool Kit) is employed to analyze UAV operation and produce SAR raw data. A SAR simulator is developed to produce high resolution SAR image for various ground targets.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.153-166
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• 2022

Waterstorage is one of the factorsthat most directly represent the amount of available water resources. Since the effects of drought can be more intuitively expressed, it is also used in variousstudies for drought evaluation. In a recent study, hydrological drought was evaluated through information on observing reservoirs with optical images. The short observation cycle and diversity of optical satellites provide a lot of data. However, there are some limitations because it is vulnerable to the influence of weather or the atmospheric environment. Therefore, thisstudy attempted to conduct a study on estimating the drought index using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) image with relatively little influence from the observation environment. We produced the waterbody of Baekgok and Chopyeong reservoirs using SAR images of Sentinel-1 satellites and calculated the Reservoir Area Drought Index (RADI), a hydrological drought index. In order to validate the applicability of RADI to drought monitoring, it was compared with Reservoir Storage Drought Index (RSDI) based on measured storage. The two indices showed a very high correlation with the correlation coefficient, r=0.87, Area Under curve, AUC=0.97. These results show the possibility of regional-scale hydrological drought monitoring of SAR-based RADI. As the number of available SAR images increases in the future, it is expected that the utilization of drought monitoring will also increase.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.25 no.11
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• pp.1104-1112
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• 2014

We present a design of the deployable lightweight antenna to be used in the satellite satisfying the required performance of the onboard sensor. The analysis is performed on the SAR antenna requirements, deploying techniques including material selection, and the characterization of deployable antenna with central disk. The performance of the solid deployable antennas and the mesh antennas are simulated, and the CFRP(Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics) samples are manufactured and tested. It is confirmed that the deployable antennas with central disk can meet the required performance by using deploying panels or mesh.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2019.05a
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• pp.102-102
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• 2019

토양수분은 수문 및 기상 현상의 주요 요인으로 가뭄, 홍수 및 범람과 같은 자연 재해와 관련이 깊은 인자이다. 이러한 토양수분의 관측 기술 중 위성 데이터를 활용한 원격탐사 기술은 광범위한 지역의 관측이 용이하고 지점이 아닌 공간 데이터를 제공하는 장점을 지니고 있어 토양수분의 관측에 유리하다. 특히 높은 해상도의 위성기반 토양수분 데이터는 토양수분의 변동성이 큰 지역의 수문, 기상학적 현상을 보다 자세히 분석할 수 있게 해주며 가뭄 및 범람과 같은 수자원 관련 재해를 정확하게 분석하는데 요구된다. 이로 인해 최근 Sentinel-1 위성에서 운용중인 Synthetic Aperture Radar(SAR) 데이터를 이용한 매우 높은 공간해상도(10m~1km)를 지니고 있는 토양수분데이터 생산에 관한 연구가 세계적으로 활발히 진행되고 있다. 그러나 국내에서는 Sentinel-1 위성을 이용한 토양수분 데이터 복원에 관한 연구가 미비한 실정이다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 파주 감악산 설마천 유역에서의 Sentinel-1 위성의 SAR 데이터를 이용한 고해상도 토양수분 데이터를 복원하고자 한다. 파주 설마천 유역은 감악산 일대로 경사가 심하고 식생이 두터운 산악지형이다. SAR를 이용하여 산지에서 신뢰성 있는 토양수분 자료를 복원하기 위해서는 가장 큰 오차의 원인으로 작용하는 경사와 식생을 고려하여야 한다. 먼저 표면 경사의 영향의 경우 SAR 센서의 레이더 입사각과 수치 표고 모델을 이용하여 고려하고자 한다. 다음 과정으로 표면 경사가 고려된 Sentinel-1 데이터의 후방산란계수와 Landsat-8 데이터 및 지점 토양수분 데이터를 이용하여 식생에 따른 후방산란계수의 거동을 Water Cloud Model을 이용하여 분석하였다. Water Cloud Model은 토양위의 식생의 수분이 후방산란계수에 혼동을 주는 구름과 같이 작용한다고 가정하고 식생수분을 후방산란계수와 레이더 입사각 및 식생지수를 통해 계산하는 모델이며 이를 이용하여 토양수분 복원에 있어 식생의 영향을 제거하고자 하였다. 이를 통해 식생과 표면 경사를 고려하여 복원된 토양수분 데이터를 설마천 유역의 지점 데이터와 비교 분석하고 다른 위성기반 토양수분 데이터 및 강우 데이터를 이용하여 평가하였다. 본 연구결과를 통해 한반도 산지에서의 SAR 데이터를 이용한 토양수분 복원 기술의 기초가 마련될 것이며 이를 통해 산지가 대부분인 한반도의 토양수분 거동을 이해하는데 유용한 자료를 제공할 수 있을 것으로 기대된다. 본 연구 이후에는 연구결과분석을 통한 산지에서의 고해상도 토양수분 복원 알고리즘을 분석, 보완하고 한반도에서의 SAR 기반 토양수분 데이터의 정확도를 높이는 연구가 진행되어야 할 것이다.