• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.321-330
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• 2015

Atmospheric correction is an essential part in time-series analysis on biophysical parameters of surface features. In this study, we tried to examine possible problems in atmospheric correction of multitemporal High Spatial Resolution (HSR) images obtained from two different sensor systems. Three KOMPSAT-2 and two IKONOS-2 multispectral images were used. Three atmospheric correction methods were applied to derive surface reflectance: (1) Radiative Transfer (RT) - based absolute atmospheric correction method, (2) the Dark Object Subtraction (DOS) method, and (3) the Cosine Of the Uun zeniTh angle (COST) method. Atmospheric correction results were evaluated by comparing spectral reflectance values extracted from invariant targets and vegetation cover types. In overall, multi-temporal reflectance from five images obtained from January to December did not show consistent pattern in invariant targets and did not follow a typical profile of vegetation growth in forests and rice field. The multi-temporal reflectance values were different by sensor type and atmospheric correction methods. The inconsistent atmospheric correction results from these multi-temporal HSR images may be explained by several factors including unstable radiometric calibration coefficients for each sensor and wide range of sun and sensor geometry with the off-nadir viewing HSR images.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.7-14
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• 2007

Atmospheric correction is one of critical procedures to extract quantitative information related to biophysical variables from hyperspectral imagery. Most atmospheric correction algorithms developed for hyperspectral data have been based upon atmospheric radiative transfer (RT) codes, such as MODTRAN. Because of the difficulty in acquisition of atmospheric data at the time of image capture, the complexity of RT model, and large volume of hyperspectral data, atmospheric correction can be very difficult and time-consuming processing. In this study, we attempted to develop an efficient method for the atmospheric correction of EO-1 Hyperion data. This method uses the pre-calculated look-up-table (LUT) for fast and simple processing. The pre-calculated LUT was generated by successive running of MODTRAN model with several input parameters related to solar and sensor geometry, radiometric specification of sensor, and atmospheric condition. Atmospheric water vapour contents image was generated directly from a few absorption bands of Hyperion data themselves and used one of input parameters. This new atmospheric correction method was tested on the Hyperion data acquired on June 3, 2001 over Seoul area. Reflectance spectra of several known targets corresponded with the typical pattern of spectral reflectance on the atmospherically corrected Hyperion image, although further improvement to reduce sensor noise is necessary.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.127-139
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• 2018

The GOCI atmospheric correction overland surfaces is essential for the time-series analysis of terrestrial environments with the very high temporal resolution. We develop an operational GOCI atmospheric correction method over land surfaces, which is rather different from the one developed for ocean surface. The GOCI atmospheric correction method basically reduces gases absorption and Rayleigh and aerosol scatterings and to derive surface reflectance from at-sensor radiance. We use the 6S radiative transfer model that requires several input parameters to calculate surface reflectance. In the sensitivity analysis, aerosol optical thickness was the most influential element among other input parameters including atmospheric model, terrain elevation, and aerosol type. To account for the highly variable nature of aerosol within the GOCI target area in northeast Asia, we generate the spatio-temporal aerosol maps using AERONET data for the aerosol correction. For a fast processing, the GOCI atmospheric correction method uses the pre-calculated look up table that directly converts at-sensor radiance to surface reflectance. The atmospheric correction method was validated by comparing with in-situ spectral measurements and MODIS reflectance products. The GOCI surface reflectance showed very similar magnitude and temporal patterns with the in-situ measurements and the MODIS reflectance. The GOCI surface reflectance was slightly higher than the in-situ measurement and MODIS reflectance by 0.01 to 0.06, which might be due to the different viewing angles. Anisotropic effect in the GOCI hourly reflectance needs to be further normalized during the following cloud-free compositing.

• Atmosphere
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.11-22
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• 2004

A technique on atmospheric correction algorithm to the multi-band reflectance of Landsat TM imagery has been developed using an atmospheric radiation transfer model for eliminating the atmospheric and surface diffusion effects. Despite the fact that the technique of satellite image processing has been continually developed, there is still a difference between the radiance value registered by satellite borne detector and the true value registered at the ground surface. Such difference is caused by atmospheric attenuations of radiance energy transfer process which is mostly associated with the presence of aerosol particles in atmospheric suspension and surface irradiance characteristics. The atmospheric reflectance depend on atmospheric optical depth and aerosol concentration, and closely related to geographical and environmental surface characteristics. Therefore, when the effects of surface diffuse and aerosol reflectance are eliminated from the satellite image, it is actually corrected from atmospheric optical conditions. The objective of this study is to develop an algorithm for making atmospheric correction in satellite image. The study is processed with the correction function which is developed for eliminating the effects of atmospheric path scattering and surface adjacent pixel spectral reflectance within an atmospheric radiation model. The diffused radiance of adjacent pixel in the image obtained from accounting the average reflectance in the $7{\times}7$ neighbourhood pixels and using the land cover classification. The atmospheric correction functions are provided by a radiation transfer model of LOWTRAN 7 based on the actual atmospheric soundings over the Korean atmospheric complexity. The model produce the upward radiances of satellite spectral image for a given surface reflectance and aerosol optical thickness.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.83-101
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• 2022

Accurate atmospheric correction is essential for the analysis of land surface and environmental monitoring. Aerosol optical depth (AOD) information is particularly important in atmospheric correction because the radiation attenuation by Mie scattering makes the differences between the radiation calculated at the satellite sensor and the radiation measured at the land surface. Thus, it is necessary to use high-quality AOD data for an appropriate atmospheric correction of high-resolution satellite images. In this study, we examined the Second Simulation of a Satellite Signal in the Solar Spectrum (6S)-based atmospheric correction results for the Sentinel-2 images in South Korea using raster AOD (MODIS) and single-point AOD (AERONET). The 6S result was overall agreed with the Sentinel-2 level 2 data. Moreover, using raster AOD showed better performance than using single-point AOD. The atmospheric correction using the single-point AOD yielded some inappropriate values for forest and water pixels, where as the atmospheric correction using raster AOD produced stable and natural patterns in accordance with the land cover map. Also, the Sentinel-2 normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) after the 6S correction had similar patterns to the up scaled drone NDVI, although Sentinel-2 NDVI had relatively low values. Also, the spatial distribution of both images seemed very similar for growing and harvest seasons. Future work will be necessary to make efforts for the gap-filling of AOD data and an accurate bi-directional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) model for high-resolution atmospheric correction. These methods can help improve the land surface monitoring using the future Compact Advanced Satellite 500 in South Korea.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.35 no.6_3
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• pp.1299-1312
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• 2019

As land remote sensing applications are expanding to the extraction of quantitative information, the importance of atmospheric correction is increasing. Considering the difficulty of atmospheric correction for land images, it should be applied when it is necessary. The quantitative information extraction and time-series analysis on biophysical variables in land surfaces are two major applications that need atmospheric correction. Atmospheric aerosol content and column water vapor, which are very dynamic in spatial and temporal domain, are the most influential elements and obstacles in retrieving accurate surface reflectance. It is difficult to obtain aerosol and water vapor data that have suitable spatio-temporal scale for high- and medium-resolution multispectral imagery. Selection of atmospheric correction method should be based on the availability of appropriate aerosol and water vapor data. Most atmospheric correction of land imagery assumes the Lambertian surface, which is not the case for most natural surfaces. Further BRDF correction should be considered to remove or reduce the anisotropic effects caused by different sun and viewing angles. The atmospheric correction methods of optical imagery over land will be enhanced to meet the need of quantitative remote sensing. Further, imaging sensor system may include pertinent spectral bands that can help to extract atmospheric data simultaneously.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• v.2
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• pp.619-622
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• 2006

Atmospheric correction is one of critical procedures to extract quantitative information related to biophysical variables from hyperspectral data. In this study, we attempted to generate the water vapor contents image from hyperspectral data itself and developed the atmospheric correction algorithm for EO-1 Hyperion data using pre-calculated atmospheric look-up-table (LUT) for fast processing. To apply the new atmospheric correction algorithm, Hyperion data acquired June 3, 2001 over Seoul area is used. Reflectance spectrums of various targets on atmospheric corrected Hyperion reflectance images showed the general spectral pattern although there must be further development to reduce the spectral noise.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.5_3
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• pp.891-907
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• 2023

Compact Advanced Satellite 500-4 (CAS500-4) is scheduled to be launched to collect high spatial resolution data focusing on vegetation applications. To achieve this goal, accurate surface reflectance retrieval through atmospheric correction is crucial. Therefore, a machine learning-based atmospheric correction algorithm was developed to simulate atmospheric correction from a radiative transfer model using Sentinel-2 data that have similarspectral characteristics as CAS500-4. The algorithm was then evaluated mainly for forest areas. Utilizing the atmospheric correction parameters extracted from Sentinel-2 and GEOKOMPSAT-2A (GK-2A), the atmospheric correction algorithm was developed based on Random Forest and Light Gradient Boosting Machine (LGBM). Between the two machine learning techniques, LGBM performed better when considering both accuracy and efficiency. Except for one station, the results had a correlation coefficient of more than 0.91 and well-reflected temporal variations of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (i.e., vegetation phenology). GK-2A provides Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) and water vapor, which are essential parameters for atmospheric correction, but additional processing should be required in the future to mitigate the problem caused by their many missing values. This study provided the basis for the atmospheric correction of CAS500-4 by developing a machine learning-based atmospheric correction simulation algorithm.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.35 no.6_1
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• pp.1011-1030
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• 2019

Remote sensing sensors used in satellites or aircrafts measure electromagnetic waves passing through the earth's atmosphere, and thus the information on the surface of the earth is affected as it is absorbed or scattered by the earth's atmosphere. Although satellites have different wavelength ranges and resolutions depending on the purpose of onboard sensors, in general, atmospheric correction must be made to remove the influence of the atmosphere in order to accurately measure the spectral signal of an object on the earth's surface. The purpose of atmospheric correction is to remove the atmospheric effect from remote sensing images to determine surface reflectivity values and to derive physical parameters of the surface. Until recently, atmospheric correction algorithms have evolved from image-based empirical methods or indirect methods using in-situ observation data to direct methods that numerically interpret more complex radiative transfer processes. This study analyzes the research records of atmospheric correction algorithms developed over the past 40 years, systematically establishes the current state of atmospheric correction technology and the results of major atmospheric correction algorithms and presents the current status and research trends of related technologies.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• v.2
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• pp.864-867
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• 2006

Thermal infrared images of Landsat-5 TM and Landsat-7 ETM+ sensors have been unrivalled sources of high resolution thermal remote sensing (60m for ETM+, 120m for TM) for more than two decades. Atmospheric effect that degrades the accuracy of Sea Surface Temperature (SST) measurement significantly, however, can not be corrected as the sensors have only one thermal channel. Recently, MODIS sensor onboard Terra satellite is equipped with dual-thermal channels (31 and 32) of which the difference of at-satellite brightness temperature can provide atmospheric correction with 1km resolution. In this study we corrected the atmospheric effect of Landsat SST by using MODIS data obtained almost simultaneously. As a case study, we produced the Landsat SST near the eastern and western coast of Korea. Then we have obtained Terra/MODIS image of the same area taken approximately 30 minutes later. Atmospheric correction term was calculated by the difference between the MODIS SST (Level 2) and the SST calculated from a single channel (31 of Level 1B). This term with 1km resolution was used for Landsat SST atmospheric correction. Comparison of in situ SST measurements and the corrected Landsat SSTs has shown a significant improvement in $R^2$ from 0.6229 to 0.7779. It is shown that the combination of the high resolution Landsat SST and the Terra/MODIS atmospheric correction can be a routine data production scheme for the thermal remote sensing of ocean.