• Atmosphere
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.331-346
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• 2013

A case study of mesoscale snowfall with polar low signature during 25~26 December 2010 in South Korea is presented. The data used for analysis include surface and upper level weather charts, rain gauge, sea surface temperature, satellite imagery, sounding, and global $1^{\circ}{\times}1^{\circ}$ reanalysis data. The system initiated with a surface trough near the bay of Bohai but quickly intensified to become a polar low within 12 hours. The polar low moved southeastward bringing snowfall to southwestern Korea. There was strong instability layer beneath 800 hPa but baroclinicty was weak and disappeared as the low progressed onto land. Shortwave at 500 hPa and the surface trough became in-phase which hindered the development of the polar low while it approached Korea. However, there were strong tropopause folding (~500 hPa) and high potential vorticity (PV), which allowed the system to maintain its structure and dump 20.3 cm of snow in Jeonju. Synoptic, thermodynamic, dynamic, and moisture analyses reveal that polar low developed in an area of baroclinicity with strong conditional instability and warm air advection at the lower levels. Further, the development of a surface trough to polar low was aided by tropopause folding with PV advection in the upper level, shortwave trough at 500 hPa, and moisture advection with low-level jet (LLJ) of 15 m $s^{-1}$ or more at 850 hPa. Maximum snowfall was concentrated in this region with convection being sustained by latent heat release.

• Atmosphere
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.273-286
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• 2010

The northeast part of China(hereafter Manchuria) is one of Asian dust source regions along with Gobi, Inner Mongolia and Loess Plateau. In this study, a geographical survey over the area was carried out to determine its soil characteristics in June 2009. It revealed that some parts of the area, especially near Keerchin desert, consist of alkali clay soil mixed up with sand. Manchuria, where is a vast cornfield, can be a potential source region of Asian dust from fall to following spring after harvesting. The frequency of Asian dust over the region from 1996 to 2009 was examined using 3-hourly GTS SYNOP data and it showed that the occurrence of Asian dust over the region is high in the springtime. It was also revealed that snow cover is the key parameter affecting on the frequency through the analysis of NCEP reanalysis data. To scrutinize the path and structure of Asian dust from Manchuria, the event on 3~4 April 2008 and 25 January 2010 were intensively investigated with regard to features of synoptic weather patterns, satellite imagery, airstream, naked eye-observations, concentrations of PM10, 2.5 and 1.0. For this case, the Asian dust from the area reached to Korea less than a day. However, the duration time of the dust in Korea was short (< 7 hours). The average of hourly PM10 reached up to $340{\mu}g/m^{3}$ at Baengnyeondo during the period. The high PM2.5 and PM1.0 concentrations were also observed at several sites in Korea, indicating that air pollutants could be transported along with the dust.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.573-591
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• 2010

In this study, trends of heat waves in the populous Seoul metropolitan area over the last 100 years (1908-2007) and spatio-temporal patterns of extreme heat waves and excessive human mortality are examined. In spite of recent global warming, there is no observable increasing or decreasing pattern in the frequency and intensity of heat waves in Seoul due to increases of summer precipitation. Among numerous episodes over the last 100 years in Seoul, 1994 summer is recognized as the unprecedented, most extreme hot episode with long-lasting, intense heat waves Meteorological data observed at the Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) and land surface temperature data derived from Landsat TM satellite imagery in July 1994 reveal that extreme heat waves cause more abnormal increase of elderly mortality in the urbanized areas than in the surroundings covered with more vegetation. This study provides bioclimatological evidences of why urban thermal environments should be seriously considered in the future urban revitalization planning.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.41-50
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• 2008

Recent progress in state-of-the-art geospatial information technologies such as digital mapping, LiDAR(Light Detection And Ranging), and high-resolution satellite imagery provides various data sources fer Digital Elevation Model(DEM). DEMs are major source to extract elements of the hydrological terrain property that are necessary for efficient watershed management. Especially, watersheds extracted from DEM are important geospatial database to identify physical boundaries that are utilized in water resource management plan including water environmental survey, pollutant investigation, polluted/wasteload/pollution load allocation estimation, and water quality modeling. Most of the previous studies related with watershed extraction using DEM are mainly focused on the hydrological elements analysis and preprocessing without considering grid size of the DEMs. This study aims to analyze accuracy of the watersheds extracted from DEMs with various grid sizes generated by LiDAR data and digital map, and appropriate preprocessing methods.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.34 no.6_4
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• pp.1479-1488
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• 2018

On September 3rd 2017, strong artificial seismic signals from North Korea were detected in KMA (Korea Meteorological Administration) seismic network. The location of the epicenter was estimated to be Punggye-ri nuclear test site and it was the most powerful to date. The event was not studied well due to accessibility and geodetic measurements. Therefore, we used remote sensing data to analyze surface changes around Mt. Mantap area. First of all, we tried to detect surface deformation using InSAR method with Advanced Land Observation Satellite-2 (ALOS-2). Even though ALOS-2 data used L-band long wavelength, it was not working well for this particular case because of decorrelation on interferogram. The main reason would be large deformation near the Mt. Mantap area. To overcome this limitation of decorrelation, we applied offset tracking method to measure deformation. However, this method is affected by window kernel size. So we applied various window sizes from 32 to 224 in 16 steps. We could retrieve 2D surface deformation of about 3 m in maximum in the west side of Mt. Mantap. Second, we used Pleiadas-A/B high resolution satellite optical images which were acquired before and after the 6th nuclear test. We detected widespread surface damage around the top of Mt. Mantap such as landslide and suspected collapse area. This phenomenon may be caused by a very strong underground nuclear explosion test. High-resolution satellite images could be used to analyze non-accessible area.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.179-193
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• 2021

This study examines the use of satellite images for river classification and determination of stream reach, which is the first priority in the river environment assessment system. In the river environment assessment system used in South Korea, it is proposed to set a stream reach by using 10 or 25 times the width of the river based on the result of river classification. First, river classification for the main stream section of Cheongmi stream was performed using various river-related data. The maximum likelihood method was applied for land cover classification. In this study, Sentinel-2 satellite imagery, which is an open data technology with a resolution of 10 m, was used. A total of four satellite images from 2018 was used to consider various flow conditions: February 2 (daily discharge = 2.39 m³/s), May 23 (daily discharge = 15.51 m³/s), June 2 (daily discharge = 3.88 m³/s), and July 7 (daily discharge = 33.61 m³/s). The river widths were estimated from the result of land cover classification to determine stream reach. The results of the assessment reach classification were evaluated using indicators of stream physical environments, including pool diversity, channel sinuosity, and river crossing shape and structure. It is concluded that appropriate flow conditions need to be considered when using satellite images to set up assessment segments for the river environment assessment system.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.363-370
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• 2023

Various earth observation satellites need to provide accurate and high-quality data after launch. To maintain and enhance the quality of satellite data, it is crucial to employ a cross-calibration process that accounts for differences in sensor characteristics, such as the spectral band adjustment factor (SBAF). In this study, we utilized Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2A satellite imagery collected from desert sites in Libya4, Algeria3, and Mauritania2 among pseudo-invariant calibration sites to calculate and apply SBAF, thereby compensating the uncertainties arising from variations in bandwidths. We quantitatively compared the reflectance differences based on the similarity of bandwidths, including Blue, Green, Red, and both the near-infrared (NIR) narrow, and NIR bands of Sentinel-2A. Following the application of SBAF, significant results with reflectance differences of approximately 1% or less were observed for all bands except NIR. In the case of the Sentinel-2A NIR band, it exhibited a significantly larger bandwidth difference compared to the NIR narrow band. However, after applying SBAF, the reflectance difference fell within the acceptable error range (5%) of 1-2%. It indicates that SBAF can be applied even when there is a substantial difference in the bandwidths of the two sensors, particularly in situations where satellite utilization is limited. Therefore, it was determined that SBAF could be applied even when the bandwidth difference between the two sensors is large in a situation where satellite utilization is limited. It is expected to be helpful in research utilizing the quality and continuity of satellite data.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.35 no.6_1
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• pp.987-997
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• 2019

Recently the demand for drones is rapidly increasing, as developing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and growing interest in them. Compared to traditional satellite and aerial imagery, it can be used for various researches (environment, geographic information, ocean observation, and remote sensing) because it can be managed with low operating costs and effective data acquisition. However, there is a disadvantage in that only a small area is acquired compared to the satellite and an aircraft, which is a traditional remote sensing method, depending on the battery capacity of the UAV, and the distance limit between Ground Control System (GCS) and UAV. If remote control at long range is possible, the possibility of using UAV in the field of remote sensing can be increased. Therefore, there is a need for a communication network system capable of controlling regardless of the distance between the UAV and the GCS. The distance between UAV and GCS can be transmitted and received using simple radio devices (RF 2.4 GHz, 915 MHz, 433 MHz), which is limited to around 2 km. If the UAV can be managed simultaneously by improving the operating environment of the UAV using a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) communication network, it can make greater effects by converging with the existing industries. In this study, we performed the maximum straight-line distance 6.1 km, the test area 2.2 ㎢, and the total flight distance 41.75 km based on GCS through LTE communication. In addition, we analyzed the possibility of disconnected communication through the base station of LTE communication.

• Journal of Korean Society for Geospatial Information Science
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.65-71
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• 2015

Red Tide phenomenon which happens in the southern coast of Korea gives massive damage to the fishermen who run fish farms and thereby a lot of efforts to prevent damage are made from various angles. In particular, red tide monitoring with satellite imagery can make it possible to obtain the occurrence data of red tide throughout the whole areas of the sea, which helps provide important information for establishing the preventive plans of disasters. In this regard, this study selected the South Sea of Gyeongnam Province with a view to suggesting the monitoring results with regard to the spread and reduction of the Red Tide in the middle of the day by using the GOCI Images of COMS. With this intention, it selected the region in the South Sea of Gyeongnam Province. The study results of analysis on the GOCI image data for the years of 2013(Aug. 12) and 2014 (Sep. 11) are as follows: the pattern of the Red Tide in the region of the South Sea occurred in the southern sea area of Geoje-do in the morning. It gradually spread and showed a gradual decline after reaching the top at 1 PM. In addition, in terms of the tide movement in the middle of the day, Red Tide began in the southern sea area and moved to the west, and moved to the east again at noon. It is judged that additional study on many factors such as the characteristics of the future Red-tide organisms, tidal currents, amount of sunshine, and water temperature is needed, but it is estimated that Red Tide movement monitoring with GOCI images would provide very crucial information for predicting the spread and movement of the Red Tide to protect and manage the Red Tide disasters.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.133-149
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• 2022

Existing domestic studies on estimating rice yield were mainly implemented at the level of cities and counties in the entire nation using MODIS satellite images with low spatial resolution. Unlike previous studies, this study tried to estimate rice yield at the level of eup-myon-dong in Gimje-si, Jeollabuk-do using Sentinel-2 satellite images with medium spatial resolution, rainfall and soil data, and then to evaluate its accuracy. Five vegetation indices such as NDVI, LAI, EVI2, MCARI1 and MCARI2 derived from Sentinel-2 images of August 1, 2018 for Gimje-si, Jeollabuk-do, rainfall and paddy soil-type data were aggregated by the level of eup-myon-dong and then rice yield was estimated with gamma generalized linear model, an expanded variant of multi-variate regression analysis to solve the non-normality problem of dependent variable. In the rice yield model finally developed, EVI2, rainfall days in September, and saline soils ratio were used as significant independent variables. The coefficient of determination representing the model fit was 0.68 and the RMSE for showing the model accuracy was 62.29kg/10a. This model estimated the total rice production in Gimje-si in 2018 to be 96,914.6M/T, which was very close to 94,470.3M/T the actual amount specified in the Statistical Yearbook with an error of 0.46%. Also, the rice production per unit area of Gimje-si was amounted to 552kg/10a, which was almost consistent with 550kg/10a of the statistical data. This result is similar to that of the previous studies and it demonstrated that the rice yield can be estimated using Sentinel-2 satellite images at the level of cities and counties or smaller districts in Korea.