• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.7-16
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• 2011

This study discussed the applicability of satellite SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) imagery with regard to reservoir monitoring, and tried the extraction of reservoir storage from multi-temporal C-band RADARSAT-1 SAR backscattering images of Yedang and Goongpyeong agricultural reservoirs, acquired from May to October 2005. SAR technology has been advanced as a complementary and alternative approach to optical remote sensing and in-situ measurement. Water bodies in SAR imagery represent low brightness induced by low backscattering, and reservoir storage can be derived from the backscatter contrast with the level-area-volume relationship of each reservoir. The threshold segmentation over the routine preprocessing of SAR images such as speckle reduction and low-pass filtering concluded a significant correlation between the SAR-derived reservoir storage and the observation record in spite of the considerable disagreement. The result showed up critical limitations for adopting SAR data to reservoir monitoring as follows: the inappropriate specifications of SAR data, the unreliable rating curve of reservoir, the lack of climatic information such as wind and precipitation, the interruption of inside and neighboring land cover, and so on. Furthermore, better accuracy of SAR-based reservoir monitoring could be expected through different alternatives such as multi-sensor image fusion, water level measurement with altimeters or interferometry, etc.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.639-647
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• 2018

This paper presents TerraSAR-X and KOMPSAT-5 sigma nought variation according to season and antenna observation configuration in Mongolia. Two types of landcover including bare surface and cropland were examined. The seasonal variation of sigma nought in cropland was about 7 dB and particularly a significant sigma nought reduction occurred after harvest. On the contrary, the Mongolia bare surface provides a consistent sigma nought values for several years with an annual variation less than 2.5 dB of standard deviation. However, the bare soil was relatively sensitive to look-direction (or ascending or descending mode) as well as incidence angle while the cropland was almost independent of antenna look-direction and small incidence angle changes. Although the look-directional variation of bare surface sigma nought was observed in this study, the look-direction anisotropic nature of the surface was not well examined. A further study would be required to account for this feature with various SAR observation configurations.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.25 no.11
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• pp.1183-1189
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• 2014

The accuracy of the resistive-sheet technique in calculating the RCS(Radar Cross Section) of a deciduous leaf is examined in this paper for various thicknesses and dielectric constants, and a range of thicknesses for the resistive sheet technique is proposed. At first, a leaf was assumed to be a lossy dielectric disk, and the dielectric disk was again assumed to be a resistive sheet with an appropriate resistivity for a given thickness, a dielectric constant, and a frequency. Then, the RCS of the leaf was computed using the physical optics(PO) method, and was compared with the calculation results of a numerical analysis: i.e., a commercial tool based on the FEM (Finite Element Method) technique. It was shown that the error increases as the thickness increases. The error was 0.1 dB, for example, when the thickness is 1.2 mm and 3.7 dB when the thickness is 3 mm with a dielectric constant of(21.4, 9.7) at 9.6 GHz. It was also found that the error decreases as the dielectric constant increases. This study will be very useful for calculating the scattering characteristics of numerous leaves in a vegetation canopy for estimating its radar backscatter using scattering model.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.305-319
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• 2021

The overseas calibration sites such as Mongolia used for Korea Multi-purpose Satellite (KOMPSAT-5 or K5), have a disadvantage in that maintenance and repair costs are high and immediate response is difficult when an unexpected problem occurs. Accordingly, the necessity of establishing a domestic SAR calibration site was suggested, but the progress of related research is insignificant. In this paper, we investigated what conditions should be satisfied in terms of backscattering characteristics to construct a site for SAR satellite image quality evaluation and calibration. First of all, it was selected first by applying general indicators such as accessibility and availability among places recommended as satellite image calibration candidate sitesin Korea. Next, three places, site A (Goheung-gun, Jeollanam-do), site B (Jeonju-si, Jeollabuk-do), and site C (Daedeok Research Complex, Daejeon), were selected as the final candidates because they are relatively wide and easy to install AT or CR. Site A, located in Goheung-gun, Jeollanam-do, was best considered in terms of slope measurements, minimum site area to obtain ISLR, uniformity of DN values and backscatter coefficients, interference by strong reflectors, and backscatter clutter level.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.627-635
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• 2020

With the increasing severity of climate change, intense torrential rains are occurring more frequently globally. Flooding due to torrential rain not only causes substantial damage directly, but also via secondary events such as landslides. Therefore, accurate and prompt flood detection is required. Because it is difficult to directly access flooded areas, previous studies have largely used satellite images. Traditionally, water indices such asthe normalized difference water index (NDWI) and modified normalized difference water index (MNDWI) which are based on different optical bands acquired by satellites, are used to detect floods. In addition, as flooding likelihood is greatly influenced by the weather, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images have also been used, because these are less influenced by weather conditions. In this study, we compared flood areas calculated from SAR images and water indices derived from Landsat-8 images, where the images were acquired at similar times. The flooded area was calculated from Landsat-8 and Sentinel-1 images taken between the end of May and August 2019 at Lijiazhou Island, China, which is located in the Changjiang (Yangtze) River basin and experiences annual floods. As a result, the flooded area calculated using the MNDWI was approximately 21% larger on average than that calculated using the NDWI. In a comparison of flood areas calculated using water indices and SAR intensity images, the flood areas calculated using SAR images tended to be smaller, regardless of the order in which the images were acquired. Because the images were acquired by the two satellites on different dates, we could not directly compare the accuracy of the water-index and SAR data. Nevertheless, this study demonstrates that floods can be detected using both optical and SAR satellite data.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.10 no.1 s.20
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• pp.1-7
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• 2004

RADARSAT is one of many possible data sources that can play an important role in marine surveillance including ship detection because radar sensors have the two primary advantages: all-weather and day or night imaging. However, atmospheric effects on SAR imaging can not be bypassed and any remote sensing image has various geometric distortions, In this study, radiometric and geometric calibrations for RADARSAT/SAT data are tried using SGX products georeferenced as level 1. Even comparison of the near vs. far range sections of the same images requires such calibration Radiometric calibration is performed by compensating for effects of local illuminated area and incidence angle on the local backscatter, Conversion method of the pixel DNs to beta nought and sigma nought is also investigated. Finally, automatic geometric calibration based on the 4 pixels from the header file is compared to a marine chart. The errors for latitude and longitude directions are 300m and 260m, respectively. It can be concluded that the error extent is acceptable for an application to open sea and can be calibrated using a ground control point.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.33 no.6_1
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• pp.947-960
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• 2017

Soil moisture plays an important role to affect the Earth's radiative energy balance and water cycle. In general, satellite observations are useful for estimating the soil moisture content. Passive microwave satellites have an advantage of direct sensitivity on surface soil moisture. However, their coarse spatial resolutions (10-36 km) are not suitable for regional-scale hydrological applications. Meanwhile, in-situ ground observations of point-based soil moisture content have the disadvantage of spatially discontinuous information. This paper presents an experimental soil moisture retrieval using Sentinel-1 SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) with 10m spatial resolution for cropland in South Korea. We developed a soil moisture retrieval algorithm based on the technique of linear regression and SVR (support vector regression) using the ground observations at five in-situ sites and Sentinel-1 SAR data from April to October in 2015-2017 period. Our results showed the polarization dependency on the different soil sensitivities at backscattered signals, but no polarization dependence on the accuracies. No particular seasonal characteristics of the soil moisture retrieval imply that soil moisture is generally more affected by hydro-meteorology and land surface characteristics than by phenological factors. At the narrower range of incidence angles, the relationship between the backscattered signal and soil moisture content was more distinct because the decreasing surface interference increased the retrieval accuracies under the condition of evenly distributed soil moisture (during the raining period or on the paddy field). We had an overall error estimate of RMSE (root mean square error) of approximately 6.5%. Our soil moisture retrieval algorithm will be improved if the effects of surface roughness, geomorphology, and soil properties would be considered in the future works.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.38 no.6_4
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• pp.1935-1943
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• 2022

The development and application of a high-resolution soil moisture mapping method using satellite imagery has been considered one of the major research themes in remote sensing. In this study, soil moisture mapping in the test area of Jeju Island was performed. The soil moisture was calculated with optical images using linearly adjusted Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) polarization images and incident angle. SAR Backscatter data, Analysis Ready Data (ARD) provided by Google Earth Engine (GEE), was used. In the soil moisture processing process, the optical image was applied to normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) by surface reflectance of KOMPSAT-3 satellite images and the land cover map of Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI). When the SAR image and the optical images are fused, the reliability of the soil moisture product can be improved. To validate the soil moisture mapping product, a comparative analysis was conducted with normalized difference water index (NDWI) products by the KOMPSAT-3 image and those of the Landsat-8 satellite. As a result, it was shown that the soil moisture map and NDWI of the study area were slightly negative correlated, whereas NDWI using the KOMPSAT-3 images and the Landsat-8 satellite showed a highly correlated trend. Finally, it will be possible to produce precise soil moisture using KOMPSAT optical images and KOMPSAT SAR images without other external remotely sensed images, if the soil moisture calculation algorithm used in this study is further developed for the KOMPSAT-5 image.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.191-201
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• 2011

Soybean has widely grown for its edible bean which has numerous uses. Microwave remote sensing has a great potential over the conventional remote sensing with the visible and infrared spectra due to its all-weather day-and-night imaging capabilities. In this investigation, a ground-based polarimetric scatterometer operating at multiple frequencies was used to continuously monitor the crop conditions of a soybean field. Polarimetric backscatter data at L, C, and X-bands were acquired every 10 minutes on the microwave observations at various soybean stages. The polarimetric scatterometer consists of a vector network analyzer, a microwave switch, radio frequency cables, power unit and a personal computer. The polarimetric scatterometer components were installed inside an air-conditioned shelter to maintain constant temperature and humidity during the data acquisition period. The backscattering coefficients were calculated from the measured data at incidence angle $40^{\circ}$ and full polarization (HH, VV, HV, VH) by applying the radar equation. The soybean growth data such as leaf area index (LAI), plant height, fresh and dry weight, vegetation water content and pod weight were measured periodically throughout the growth season. We measured the temporal variations of backscattering coefficients of the soybean crop at L, C, and X-bands during a soybean growth period. In the three bands, VV-polarized backscattering coefficients were higher than HH-polarized backscattering coefficients until mid-June, and thereafter HH-polarized backscattering coefficients were higher than VV-, HV-polarized back scattering coefficients. However, the cross-over stage (HH > VV) was different for each frequency: DOY 200 for L-band and DOY 210 for both C and X-bands. The temporal trend of the backscattering coefficients for all bands agreed with the soybean growth data such as LAI, dry weight and plant height; i.e., increased until about DOY 271 and decreased afterward. We plotted the relationship between the backscattering coefficients with three bands and soybean growth parameters. The growth parameters were highly correlated with HH-polarization at L-band (over r=0.92).

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.127-134
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• 2012

Microwave remote sensing can help monitor the land surface water cycle, crop growth and soil moisture. A ground-based polarimetric scatterometer has an advantage for continuous crop using multi-polarization and multi-frequencies and various incident angles have been used extensively in a frequency range expanding from L-band to Ka-band. In this study, we analyzed the relationships between L-, C- and X-band signatures and soil moisture content over the whole soybean growth period. Polarimetric backscatter data at L-, C- and X-bands were acquired every 10 minutes. L-band backscattering coefficients were higher than those observed using C- or X-band over the period. Backscattering coefficients for all frequencies and polarizations increased until Day Of Year (DOY) 271 and then decreased until harvesting stage (DOY 294). Time serious of soil moisture content was not a corresponding with backscattering over the whole growth stage, although it increased relatively until early August (R2, DOY 224). We conducted the relationship between the backscattering coefficients of each band and soil moisture content. Backscattering coefficients for all frequencies were not correlated with soil moisture content when considered over the entire stage ($r{\leq}0.50$). However, we found that L-band HH polarization was correlated with soil moisture content (r=0.90) when Leaf Area Index (LAI)<2. Retrieval equations were developed for estimating soil moisture content using L-band HH polarization. Relation between L-HH and soil moisture shows exponential pattern and highly related with soil moisture content ($R^2=0.92$). Results from this study show that backscattering coefficients of radar scatterometer appear effective to estimate soil moisture content.