• 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.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.166-172
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• 2018

To develop and evaluate the real-time SAR(Synthetic Aperture Radar) motion measurement system, true antenna phase center(APC) positions during SAT(Synthetic Aperture Time) are needed. In this paper, CDGPS(Carrier phase Differential Global Positioning System) post processing method is proposed to get the true APC position for spotlight SAR image formation. The CDGPS position is smoothed to remove high frequency noise which exists inherently in the carrier phase measurement. This paper shows smoothed CDGPS data is enough to provide the true APC for high-quality SAR image formation through motion measurement result, phase error estimation and IRF(Impulse Response Function) analysis.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.34 no.8
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• pp.104-108
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• 2006

There are range and azimuth direction resolution of synthetic aperture radar on the aircraft or satellite. Wide bandwidth chirp pulse generation technology is prerequisite for SAR image with fine resolution. There are two kinds of digital chirp pulse generation technology as arbitrary waveform generator(AWG) and direct digital synthesizer(DDS). In this paper, we design and implement a digital chirp pulse generator to generate 300MHz wide bandwidth linear FM chirp pulse for the fine resolution image with direct digital synthesizer. Implemented chirp pulse generator can be useful for the SAR sensors to make 50cm range resolution image.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.21 no.9
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• pp.979-986
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• 2010

This paper presents an algorithm for retrieving precise radar cross sections(RCS) of various trihedral corner reflectors (TCR) which are external calibrators of synthetic aperture radar(SAR) systems. The theoretical RCSs of the TCRs are computed based on the physical optics(PO), geometrical optics(GO), and physical theory of diffraction(PTD) techniques; that is, the RCS computation includes the single reflections(PO), double reflections(GO-PO), triple reflections(GO-GO-PO), and edge diffractions(PTD) from the TCR. At first, we acquire an SAR image of the area that five TCRs installed in, and then extract the RCS of the TCRs. The RCSs of the TCRs are extracted accurately from the SAR image by adding up the power spill, which is generated due to the radar IRF(Impulse Response Function), using a square window. We compare the extracted RCSs with the theoretical RCSs and analyze the difference between the theoretical and experimental RCSs of the TCR for various window sizes and various backscattering coefficient levels of the adjacent area. Finally, we propose the minimum size of the integration area and the maximum level of the backscattering coefficients for the adjacent area.

• Journal of Satellite, Information and Communications
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.117-127
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• 2015

Recently, research and development on satellite payloads are being developed such as the optical sensor, SAR etc. Satellite image for earth observation is being utilized both domestically and abroad. Advanced satellite payload technology has led to the collection and analysis of satellite images relying on the optical sensor. Currently, related organizations such as RDA(the Rural Development Administration) are collectively collaborating to plan a national project to develop a medium-sized satellite based on Korea's domestic technology independently. This paper investigated the cases of the past research on application of satellite images for agriculture and analyzed the technical specifications for satellite payload in each area of such application. Based on the results of the past surveys and consultation studies among local experts in satellite image application, we analyzed the current trends, plans and applications of domestic and overseas R&D in satellite payloads for earth observation in agriculture, and proposed the appropriate technical specifications for developing a future medium-sized satellite for agriculture. The proposed specifications were then incorporated into a simulated satellite to examine its performance to observe the Korean farming areas. The authors anticipate that the findings of this paper will form a useful technical basis for providing the appropriate specifications for developing future medium-sized satellite payloads to be used in agriculture and forestry, and enabling the end users to efficiently utilize the satellite.

• 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.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.38 no.6_1
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• pp.1245-1255
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• 2022

Terra Nova Bay polynya (TNBP) is a representative coastal polynya in East Antarctica, which is formed by strong katabatic winds. As the TNBP is one of the major sea ice factory in East Antarctica and has a great impact on regional ocean circulation and surrounding marine ecosystem, it is very important to analyze its area change and development characteristics. In this study, we detected the TNBP from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and optical images obtained from April 2007 to April 2022 by visually analyzing the stripes caused by the Langmuir circulation effect and the boundary between the polynya and surrounding sea ice. Then, we analyzed the area change and development characteristics of the TNBP. The TNBP occurred frequently but in a small size during the Antarctic winter (April-July) when strong katabatic winds blow, whereas it developed in a large size in March and November when sea ice thickness is thin. The 12-hour mean wind speed before the satellite observations showed a correlation coefficient of 0.577 with the TNBP area. This represents that wind has a significant effect on the formation of TNBP, and that other environmental factors might also affect its development process. The direction of TNBP expansion was predominantly determined by the wind direction and was partially influenced by the local ocean current. The results of this study suggest that the influences of environmental factors related to wind, sea ice, ocean, and atmosphere should be analyzed in combination to identify the development characteristics of TNBP.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.36 no.5_1
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• pp.847-860
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• 2020

The 2-pass DInSAR (Differential Interferometric SAR) processing steps for DEM generation consist of the co-registration of SAR image pair, interferogram generation, phase unwrapping, calculation of DEM errors, and geocoding, etc. It requires complicated steps, and the accuracy of data processing at each step affects the performance of the finally generated DEM. In this study, we developed an improved method for enhancing the performance of the DEM generation method based on the 2-pass DInSAR technique of TanDEM-X bistatic SAR images was developed. The developed DEM generation method is a method that can significantly reduce both the DEM error in the unwrapped phase image and that may occur during geocoding step. The performance analysis of the developed algorithm was performed by comparing the vertical accuracy (Root Mean Square Error, RMSE) between the existing method and the newly proposed method using the ground control point (GCP) generated from GPS survey. The vertical accuracy of the DInSAR-based DEM generated without correction for the unwrapped phase error and geocoding error is 39.617 m. However, the vertical accuracy of the DEM generated through the proposed method is 2.346 m. It was confirmed that the DEM accuracy was improved through the proposed correction method. Through the proposed 2-pass DInSAR-based DEM generation method, the SRTM DEM error observed by DInSAR was compensated for the SRTM 30 m DEM (vertical accuracy 5.567 m) used as a reference. Through this, it was possible to finally create a DEM with improved spatial resolution of about 5 times and vertical accuracy of about 2.4 times. In addition, the spatial resolution of the DEM generated through the proposed method was matched with the SRTM 30 m DEM and the TanDEM-X 90m DEM, and the vertical accuracy was compared. As a result, it was confirmed that the vertical accuracy was improved by about 1.7 and 1.6 times, respectively, and more accurate DEM generation was possible with the proposed method. If the method derived in this study is used to continuously update the DEM for regions with frequent morphological changes, it will be possible to update the DEM effectively in a short time at low cost.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.30-44
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• 2022

The advent of deep learning-based algorithms has facilitated researches on target detection from synthetic aperture radar(SAR) imagery. While most of them concentrate on detection tasks for ships with open SAR ship datasets and for aircraft from SAR scenes of airports, there is relatively scarce researches on the detection of SAR ground vehicle targets where several adverse factors such as high false alarm rates, low signal-to-clutter ratios, and multiple targets in close proximity are predicted to degrade the performances. In this paper, a dataset of ground vehicle targets acquired from TerraSAR-X(TSX) satellite SAR images is presented. Then, both detection and instance segmentation are simultaneously carried out on this dataset based on the deep learning-based Mask R-CNN. Finally, this paper shows the future research directions to further improve the performances of detecting the SAR ground vehicle targets.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.192.1-192.1
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• 2012

영상레이더 (SAR: Synthetic Aperture Radar) 혹은 통신 안테나/탑재체를 장착한 위성은 원하는 주파수 대역의 운용을 위해 대형 안테나 구조물 장착이 필수적이다. 이러한 대형 구조물은 일체형으로 제작되어 위성체에 접속되었을 때, 요구 무게 및 점유하는 부피가 매우 큰 특징을 지닌다. 따라서, 대형 안테나 구조물의 중량으로 인해 발사비 증가가 불가피하며, 페어링 내부의 허용된 공간에 안테나 크기는 큰 제약적 요인이 된다. 그리고, 전개식이어도, 전개후 질량 관성이 큰 구조물이 된다. 위성체의 발사 비용과 직결되는 안테나의 경량화를 위한 많은 기술이 연구되고 있다. 특히, 접이식 팽창형 안테나는 반사체의 유연한 메쉬 구조 및 경량 지지구조물로 안테나의 무게를 줄이고 수납 효율을 향상시킨다. 또한, 전개 후 안테나의 목적한 기능을 충분히 보장함과 동시에 질량 관성이 작은 구조물에 의한 위성의 기동성을 극대화할 수 있다. 국내에서도 전천후 지상관측감시 및 통신 안테나의 필요성 증대에 따라 초경량 전개형 안테나 개발의 필요성이 크게 대두되고 있으나, 현재까지는 관련 기술개발 사례가 전무한 실정으로 국내 독자적 기술 확보가 시급한 실정이다.