• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.305-314
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• 2016

In this study, a quantitative assessment was carried out in order to identify the agricultural drought in time and space using the Terra MODIS remote sensing data for the agricultural drought. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) were selected by MOD13A3 image which shows the changes in vegetation conditions. The land cover classification was made to show only vegetation excluding water and urbanized areas in order to collect the land information efficiently by Type1 of MCD12Q1 images. NDVI and EVI index calculated using land cover classification indicates the strong seasonal tendency. Therefore, standardized Vegetation Stress Index Anomaly (VSIA) of EVI were used to estimated the medium-scale regions in Korea during the extreme drought year 2001. In addition, the agricultural drought damages were investigated in the country's past, and it was calculated based on the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) using the data of the ground stations. The VSIA were compared with SPI based on historical drought in Korea and application for drought assessment was made by temporal and spatial correlation analysis to diagnose the properties of agricultural droughts in Korea.

• Spatial Information Research
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.63-73
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• 2013

Geographic features are reflected in satellite images, which contain characteristic elements. Information on changes can be obtained through a comparison of images taken at different times. If multi-temporal images can be classified through the use of an unsupervised method, this is likely to improve the accuracy of image classification and contribute to various applications. A rule-based image classification algorithm for automatic processing without human involvement has been developed, but it must be verified that its results are not affected by imperfect elements. In this study, Landsat images of Jeju Island were used to carry out a rule-based image classification. The application results were examined for complex cases, including the presence of clouds in the images, different photographed times, and the type of target area, such as city, mountain, or field. The presence of clouds did not affect calculations, and appropriate classification rules were applied, depending on the different photographed times. The expansion of the urban areas of Jeju and the increase of facilities such as vinyl greenhouses in Seoguipo were identified. Furthermore, space information changes and accurate classifications for Jeju Island were obtained. With the goal of performing high-quality unsupervised classifications, measures to generalize and improve the methods employed were searched for. The findings of this study could be used in time-series analyses of images for various applications, including urban development and environmental change monitoring.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.34 no.7
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• pp.645-661
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• 2013

The synoptic, thermodynamic, and dynamic characteristics of a heavy snowfall event that occurred in Seoul metropolitan area on 27 to 28 December 2010 was investigated. During this period there was a distinctive case that was identified as a polar low. We analyzed surface and upper level weather charts, snowfall amount, sea surface temperature, satellite imagery, sounding, and the National Center for Environmental Prediction global $1^{\circ}{\times}1^{\circ}$ reanalysis data. The polar low developed in an area where there was strong baroclinicity in the lower level aided by strong conditional instability due to 925 hPa warm air advection and 700 hPa cold air advection. The development mechanism of polar low is due, in part, to the tropopause folding, which advected stratospheric air increasing potential vorticity in mid-level and inducing cyclonic vorticity and convergence in low-level. Eventually clouds developed and there were snowfall total of 10 cm in Seoul metropolitan area and as much as 20 cm in southern parts of Korea. During the snowfall development, there was a $-45^{\circ}C$ cold core at 500 hPa and shortwave maintained $3-5^{\circ}$ separation with surface trough, which favored the development of polar low located in the warm sector and cyclonic advection area. The height of the dynamical tropopause lowered to 700 hPa during the peak development and increase in potential vorticity allowed strong vertical motion to occur. Overall, there was a close relationship between the development of snowfall and tropopause undulation. The heaviest snowfall occurred east of the tropopause folding where strong cyclonic vorticity, vertical motion, and moisture advection all coincided while the polar low was passing through the Korean peninsula.

• Current Industrial and Technological Trends in Aerospace
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.3-13
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• 2008

The year 2007 marked two important anniversaries for space. The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 50 years ago on October 4. 1957. The 40th anniversary of the United Nations treaty on outer space was also marked in 2007. 2008 and 2007 were full of dramatic events of space activity as well : Success of Japan's first large lunar explorer 'KAGUYA'(SELENE) and China's 'Chang'e 1', launch of ISS laboratory module, 'Colombus' and 'Kibo', test of China's ASAT, and success of Korea's first astronaut program and so on. International government space budgets reached $78.3 billion in 2007, a strong growth rate of 36% over 2006, and the recently released Global Exploration Strategy, The Framework for Coordination is a set of guidelines for international cooperation among 14 of the world's space agencies. Worldwide space industry revenue grew by 20% over 2005, $106.1 billion in 2006 and $173.9 billion expected in 2007. This paper discusses the issues related to the Earth observation R&D trend and market in detail. Korea's 2008 government space spending is \316.4 billion, 2007 space industry revenue was $106 million. Several research projects are now underway and STSAT 2 will be launched by KSLV-1 at the Naro Space Center within this year.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.83 no.4
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• pp.441-449
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• 1994

The two reflective channels(red and near infrared spectrum) of advanced very high resolution radiometer(AVHRR) data were used to classify primary vegetation cover types in the Korean Peninsula. From the NOAA-11 satellite data archive of 1991, 27 daytime scenes of relatively minimum cloud coverage were obtained. After the initial radiometric calibration, normalized difference vegetation index(NDVI) was calculated for each of the 27 data sets. Four or five daily NDVI data were then overlaid for each of the six months starting from February to November and the maximum value of NDVI was retained for every pixel location to make a monthly composite. The six bands of monthly NDVI composite were nearly cloud free and used for the computer classification of vegetation cover. Based on the temporal signatures of different vegetation cover types, which were generated by an unsupervised block clustering algorithm, every pixel was classified into one of the six cover type categories. The classification result was evaluated by both qualitative interpretation and quantitative comparison with existing forest statistics. Considering frequent data acquisition, low data cost and volume, and large area coverage, it is believed that AVHRR data are effective for vegetation cover type mapping at regional scale.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.337-350
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• 2010

This study conducted sedimentological and geophysical surveys for 3 years (2006-2008) in southern Gyeonggi Bay, Korea to elucidate temporal changes in subaqueous dune morphology on a sand ridge trending northeast to southwest that has been excavated by marine sand mining. The sand ridge (~20 m in height, ~2 km in width and 3~4 km in length) has a steep slope on the NW side and a gentle slope on the SE side, creating an asymmetric profile. Large (10~100 m in length) and very large (>100 m in length) dunes occurring on the SE side of the ridge show a northeastward asymmetrical shape, whereas dunes on the NW side destroyed by marine sand mining display a southwestward asymmetry. The comparison between Flemming (1988)'s correlation and the height-length correlation of this study indicates that tidal current and availability of sand sediment are major controlling factors to the development and maintenance of dunes. Depth and sedimentary characteristics (grain size) are not likely to be major controlling factors, but indirectly influence dune growth by hydrological and sedimentary processes. The length and the height of dunes decrease toward the southeastern trough away from the crest of the ridge. These features result from the decrease of tidal current and sediment availability. The length and the height of dunes on the southeast side decrease gradually over time. This is a result of the interaction between tidal current and the decrease in sediment availability due to sediment extraction by marine sand mining. Marine sand mining has destroyed the dunes directly, causing irregular shapes of shorter length and lower height. The coarse fraction of suspended sediments is transported and deposited very close to the sand pit. By contrast, relatively fine sediments are transported by the tidal current and deposited over a wide range by the settling-lag effect, resulting in a decrease of sediment grain size in the area where suspended sediments are deposited. In addition, marine sand mining, decreases the height of dunes. Therefore, morphological and sedimentological characteristics of dunes around the sand pits will be significantly changed by future sand mining activities.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.41-46
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• 2011

Reliable information on the surface solar radiation is indispensable for rebuilding food production system in the famine plagued North Korea. However, transfer of the related modeling technology of South Korea is not possible simply because raw data such as solar radiation or sunshine duration are not available. The objective of this study is restoring solar radiation data at 27 synoptic stations in North Korea by using satellite remote sensing data. We derived relationships between MODIS radiation estimates and the observed solar radiation at 18 locations in South Korea. The relationships were used to adjust the MODIS based radiation data and to restore solar radiation data at those pixels corresponding to the 27 North Korean synoptic stations. Inverse distance weighted averaging of the restored solar radiation data resulted in gridded surfaces of monthly solar radiation for 4 decadal periods (1983-1990, 1991-2000 and 2001-2010), respectively. For a direct application of these products, we produced solar irradiance estimates for each sub-grid cell with a 30 m spacing based on a sun-slope geometry. These products are expected to assist planning of the North Korean agriculture and, if combined with the already prepared South Korean data, can be used for climate change impact assessment across the whole Peninsula.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.391-400
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• 2015

Korea is a global steel producer and a major consumer while iron ore producing is very low compared to the demand. On the other hand, North Korea holds tremendous amount of iron reserves and, however, its producing rate is limited. Moreover, the data regarding mineral resources of North Korea is very limited and uncertain because of political isolation. This study estimated the amount of iron ore resource and production amount for the Musan Iron mine, the world-known open-pit mine of North Korea, using satellite imagery(Landsat MSS, ASTER) and digital maps between 1976 to 2007. As a result, the mining area of Musan mine was increased by $6.1km^2$ during the 30 years and the mining sector was estimated as $4.9km^2$. We estimated the iron resources and production amount of 0.7 and 0.2 billion metric tons, respectively based on 3D modeling and average iron ore density of Anshan formation in China. This amount indicates 8.1 million tons of annual average production and it coincides well with previous reports. We expect this study would be utilized significantly on inter-Korean exchange programs by providing trustable preliminary data.

• Journal of Korean Society for Geospatial Information Science
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.129-136
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• 2014

This study deals with red tide detection by using the remote sensing imagery from the Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI), the world's first geostationary orbit satellite, around the southern coast of Korea where the most severe red tide occurred recently. The red tide zone was determined by the available data selection from the GOCI imagery during the period of red tide occurrence and also the severe red tide zone was detected through the spatial analysis by temporal change out of the red tide zone. This study results showed that the coast in the vicinity of the Hansan and Yokji in Tongyeong-si was classified into the severe red tide zone, and that the red tide was likely to spread from the coast of Hansan and Yokji to the one of Sanyang-eub. In addition, the comparative analysis between the area of red tide occurrence, the prevention activities of Gyeongsangnam-do provincial government and the amount of the damage cost over time showed close correlation among them. It is still early to conclude that the study is showing the severe red tide zone and the spread path exactly due to various factors for red tide occurrence and activities. In order to improve the reliability of the results, the more data analysis is required.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.117-123
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• 2010

This study has examined experimentally the Beer's law which is a precondition for quantitative electron tomography. We used carbon support film and latex spheres, which have similar absorption coefficients with biological samples, as the test samples to take a tilt-series of images for electron tomography. First, the 3D information of carbon film and latex spheres was obtained by electron tomography. Then, the regression analysis on the relationship between the intensities of the incident and the transmitted beams in a tilt series was carried out to examine the Beer's law. The regression results with RMS error of 0.976 show the linear intensity variations of the transmitted beam as the tilt angles were increased. In addition, the relative absorption coefficients of carbon support film and latex spheres calculated experimentally through the Beer's law were 1.71 (5) and 2.67 (6)/${\mu}m$, respectively. The absorption coefficients remained constant within a full tilt range. Therefore, it is expected that quantitative electron tomography could be performed for biological samples by applying Beer's law provided the exact intensity of incident beam can be obtained under the thoroughly controlled experimental conditions.