• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.35 no.6_3
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• pp.1173-1185
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• 2019

We, for the first time, retrieved sulfur dioxide (SO₂) vertical column density (VCD) in industrial and volcanic areas from TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) using the Principle component analysis(PCA) algorithm. Furthermore, SO₂ VCDs retrieved by the PCA algorithm from TROPOMI raw data were compared with those retrieved by the Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (DOAS) algorithm (TROPOMI Level 2 SO₂ product). In East Asia, where large amounts of SO₂ are released to the surface due to anthropogenic source such as fossil fuels, the mean value of SO₂ VCD retrieved by the PCA (DOAS) algorithm was shown to be 0.05 DU (-0.02 DU). The correlation between SO₂ VCD retrieved by the PCA algorithm and those retrieved by the DOAS algorithm were shown to be low (slope = 0.64; correlation coefficient (R) = 0.51) for cloudy condition. However, with cloud fraction of less than 0.5, the slope and correlation coefficient between the two outputs were increased to 0.68 and 0.61, respectively. It means that the SO₂ retrieval sensitivity to surface is reduced when the cloud fraction is high in both algorithms. Furthermore, the correlation between volcanic SO₂ VCD retrieved by the PCA algorithm and those retrieved by the DOAS algorithm is shown to be high (R = 0.90) for cloudy condition. This good agreement between both data sets for volcanic SO₂ is thought to be due to the higher accuracy of the satellite-based SO₂ VCD retrieval for SO₂ which is mainly distributed in the upper troposphere or lower stratosphere in volcanic region.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.275-290
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• 2021

Sulfur dioxide (SO2) in the atmosphere is mainly generated from anthropogenic emission sources. It forms ultra-fine particulate matter through chemical reaction and has harmful effect on both the environment and human health. In particular, ground-level SO2 concentrations are closely related to human activities. Satellite observations such as TROPOMI (TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument)-derived column density data can provide spatially continuous monitoring of ground-level SO2 concentrations. This study aims to propose a 2-step residual corrected model to estimate ground-level SO2 concentrations through the synergistic use of satellite data and numerical model output. Random forest machine learning was adopted in the 2-step residual corrected model. The proposed model was evaluated through three cross-validations (i.e., random, spatial and temporal). The results showed that the model produced slopes of 1.14-1.25, R values of 0.55-0.65, and relative root-mean-square-error of 58-63%, which were improved by 10% for slopes and 3% for R and rRMSE when compared to the model without residual correction. The model performance by country was slightly reduced in Japan, often resulting in overestimation, where the sample size was small, and the concentration level was relatively low. The spatial and temporal distributions of SO2 produced by the model agreed with those of the in-situ measurements, especially over Yangtze River Delta in China and Seoul Metropolitan Area in South Korea, which are highly dependent on the characteristics of anthropogenic emission sources. The model proposed in this study can be used for long-term monitoring of ground-level SO2 concentrations on both the spatial and temporal domains.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.5_1
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• pp.563-576
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• 2023

In this study nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), formaldehyde (HCHO) from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) and TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI), OMI/ Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) tropospheric column ozone (TCO), and Airkorea ground-based O₃ data were analyzed to examine the photochemical reaction relationship between tropospheric ozone and its precursors nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). As a result of analyzing the trend of long-term changes from 2006 to 2020 using OMI satellite data, TCO showed an increasing trend, NO₂ steadily decreased, and HCHO continued to increase in Northeast Asia. In addition, formaldehyde nitrogen dioxide ratio (FNR; HCHO/NO₂ ratio), an indicator of ozone sensitivity, is gradually increasing, which means that the VOC-limited regime is decreasing. This study conducted a sensitivity analysis of ozone generation using TROPOMI FNR and ground-based ozone (O₃) over the recent years (2019~2022) to identify the possible cause for the continuous increase of ozone in Korea. Similar to the previous studies, VOC-limited and transitional regimes appeared in megacities, and VOC-limited regimes also appeared in areas where major power plants were located. In VOC-limited regimes, in other words, areas where NOx is excessively saturated, the reduction in NOx emissions may have weakened the ozone titration and thus led to the increase of ozone. Therefore, VOC emissions should be reduced in the short term rather than NOx emissions to reduce ozone concentrations under the VOC-limited regime.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.37 no.6_1
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• pp.1697-1707
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• 2021

On 19 February 2020, the 2nd Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI-II), a maritime sensor of GEO-KOMPSAT-2B, was launched. The GOCI-II instrument expands the scope of aerosol retrieval research with its improved performance compared to the former instrument (GOCI). In particular, the newly included UV band at 380 nm plays a significant role in improving the sensitivity of GOCI-II observations to the absorbing aerosols. In this study, we calculated the aerosol index and detected absorbing aerosols from January to June 2021 using GOCI-II 380 and 412 nm channels. Compared to the TROPOMI aerosol index, the GOCI-II aerosol index showed a positive bias, but the dust pixels still could be clearly distinguished from the cloud and clear pixels. The high GOCI-II aerosol index coincided with ground-based observations indicating dust aerosols were detected. We found that 70.5% of dust and 80% of moderately-absorbing fine aerosols detected from the ground had GOCI-II aerosol indices larger than the 75th percentile through the whole study period.