• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.355-364
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• 2022

When the 60-ton-class patrol boat '72' of the Korea Coast Guard (KCG) was on duty and she accidentally collided with another patrol boat ('207', 200-ton-class) and sank. A month-long search found a small amount of lost items, but neither the crew nor the ship was found. For the first time in 39 years since the accident, the Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST) searched the boat 72 using the latest integrated geophysical techniques. A number of sonar images presumed to be of a sunken ship was acquired using a combined system of side scan sonar and marine magnetometer, operated at an altitude of approximately 30 m from the seabed. At the same time, a strong magnetic anomaly (100 nT) was detected in one place, indicating the presence of an iron ship. A video survey using a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) confirmed the presence of a shielding part of a personal firearm at the stern of the sunken vessel. Based on these comprehensive data, the sunken vessel discovered in this exploration was assumed to be '72'. This result is meaningful in terms of future ocean exploration and underwater archaeology, as the integrated system of various geophysical methods is an efficient means of identifying objects present in the water.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.8-17
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• 2023

Various sources, such as wind, waves, ships, and gas leaks from the seafloor, forms bubbles in the ocean. Underwater bubbles cause signal scattering, considerably affecting acoustic measurements. This characteristic of bubbles is used to block underwater noise by attenuating the intensity of the propagated signal. Recently, researchers have been studying the large-scale release of methane gas as bubble plumes from the seabed. Understanding the physical properties and distribution of bubble plumes is crucial for studying the relation between leaked methane gas and climate change. Therefore, a water tank experiment was conducted to estimate the distribution of bubble plumes using seismic imaging techniques and acoustic signals obtained from artificially generated bubbles using a bubble generator. Reverse time migration was applied to image the bubble plumes while the acquired acoustic envelope signal was used to effectively estimate bubble distribution. Imaging results were compared with optical camera images to verify the estimated bubble distribution. The water tank experiment confirmed that the proposed system could successfully image the distribution of bubble plumes using reverse time migration and the envelope signal. The experiment showed that the scattering signal of artificial bubble plumes can be used for seismic imaging.

• International Journal of Ocean System Engineering
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.16-21
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• 2013

This paper presents a design of fuzzy PD depth controller for the autonomous underwater vehicle entitled KAUV-1. The vehicle is shaped like a torpedo with light weight and small size and used for marine exploration and monitoring. The KAUV-1 has a unique ducted propeller located at aft end with yawing actuation acting as a rudder. For depth control, the KAUV-1 uses a mass shifter mechanism to change its center of gravity, consequently, can control pitch angle and depth of the vehicle. A design of classical PD depth controller for the KAUV-1 was presented and analyzed. However, it has inherent drawback of gains, which is their values are fixed. Meanwhile, in different operation modes, vehicle dynamics might have different effects on the behavior of the vehicle. In this reason, control gains need to be appropriately changed according to vehicle operating states for better performance. This paper presents a self-tuning gain for depth controller using the fuzzy logic method which is based on the classical PD controller. The self-tuning gains are outputs of fuzzy logic blocks. The performance of the self-tuning gain controller is simulated using Matlab/Simulink and is compared with that of the classical PD controller.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.679-688
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• 2009

Worldwide exploring and research for manganese nodules, as new energy resource, distributed on the deep seabed have progressed recently. Korea Ocean Research & Development Institute(KORDI) is a central organization to exploit the manganese nodules in the Pacific Ocean with 5,000m depth. Precise exploration is required for estimating amount of recoverable deposit, and this task could be accomplished by processing digital image processing techniques to the images taken by underwater camera system. Image processing and analysis provide information about characteristics of distribution of the manganese nodules. This study proposed effective methods to remove vignetting effect to improve image quality and to extract information. The results show more reliable information could be obtained by removing the vignetting and feasibility of utilizing image processing techniques for exploring the manganese nodules.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.243-250
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• 2005

Analysis of high-resolution seismic profiles acquired from the inner shelf off the southern coast of Korea reveals that the inner shelf sequence can be divided into three stratigraphic units formed after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Unit I is characterized by complex seismic facies including semi-transparent, stratified, and hummocky reflections on seismic records. It consists of sandy mud or muddy sand, deposited under estuarine environment during the post-glacial transgression. Unit II acoustically shows semi-transparent or hummocky reflections and consists of sand with gravels and shell debris, produced by shoreface erosion during the transgression. Unit III is characterized by transparent or semi-transparent seismic facies and consists of mud originated from the Nakdong and Seomjin rivers during recent highstand of sea level. Unit III is confined to the inner shelf with an extenal form of stratal wedge.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.06a
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• pp.232-237
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• 2004

Anatahan Volcano in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) erupted for the first time in recorded history on 10 May 2003. The underwater acoustic records of earthquakes, explosions, and tremor produced during the eruption were recorded on a sound-channel hydrophone deployed in February 2003. Acoustic propagation models show the seismic to acoustic conversion at Anatahan is particularly efficient, aided by the slope of the seamount toward the hydrophone. The hydrophone records confirm the onset of earthquake activity at 01:53Z on 10 May, as well as the onset (at ${\~}$06:20Z) of continuous, low-frequency (5-40 Hz) acoustic energy that is likely volcanic tremor related to magma intrusion. The hydrophone recorded a total of 458 earthquakes associated with the eruption. To predict the character of acoustic signals generated from Anatahan, we developed a moment-tensor representation of a volcano-seismic source that is governed by the geometry of the source and the physical properties of the magma. A buried magmatic pipe model was adopted, and numerically modeling source parameters such as the pipe radius and magma viscosity enable us to grasp the inward nature of Anatahan Volcano.

• International Journal of Ocean System Engineering
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.175-187
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• 2013

Moonpools are vertical wells in a floating body used onboard many types of vessels like Exploration and drilling vessels, Production barges, Cable-laying vessels, Rock dumping vessels, Research and offshore support vessels. Moonpool gives passage to underwater activities for different types of ships as per their mission requirements. It is observed that inside a moonpool considerable relative motions may occur, depending on shape, depth of the moonpool and on the frequency range of the waves to which the ship is exposed. The vessel responses are entirely different in zero and non-zero Froude number. Former situation is paid attention in this study as the mission requirement of the platform is to be in the particular location for long period of operation. It is well known that there are two modes of responses depending on the shape of the moonpool viz., piston mode for square shape and sloshing mode for rectangular shapes with different aspect ratios of opening like 1:1.5 and 1:2 ratios. Circular shaped moonpool is also tested for measuring the responses. The vessel moored using heavy lines are modelled and tested in the wave basin. The pretensions of the lines are varied by altering the touchdown points and the dynamic tensions on the lines are measured. The different modes of oscillations of water column are measured using wave gauge and the vessel response at a particular situation is determined. RAOs calculated for various situations provide better insight to the designer.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.133-141
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• 2023

Accurate measurement of seafloor topography plays a crucial role in developing marine industries such as maritime safety, resource exploration, environmental protection, and coastal management. The seafloor topography is constructed using side scan sonar (SSS) and single beam echosounder (SBES) or multibeam echosounder (MBES), which transmit and receive ultrasound waves through a device attached to a marine survey vessel. However, the use of a sonar system is affected by noise pollution areas, and the single beam has a limited scope of application. At the same time, the multibeam is mainly applicable for depth observation. For these reasons, it is difficult to determine the boundaries and areas of seafloor topography. Therefore, this study proposes a method to improve the backscatter data of multibeam echosounder, which has a relationship with the seafloor quality, by using digital image processing to classify the shape of the underwater surface.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.6_2
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• pp.1651-1669
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• 2023

Sea ice currently covers approximately 7% of the world's ocean area, primarily concentrated in polar and high-altitude regions, subject to seasonal and annual variations. It is very important to analyze the area and type classification of sea ice through time series monitoring because sea ice is formed in various types on a large spatial scale, and oil and gas exploration and other marine activities are rapidly increasing. Currently, research on the type and area of sea ice is being conducted based on high-resolution satellite images and field measurement data, but there is a limit to sea ice monitoring by acquiring field measurement data. High-resolution optical satellite images can visually detect and identify types of sea ice in a wide range and can compensate for gaps in sea ice monitoring using Geostationary Ocean Color Imager-II (GOCI-II), an ocean satellite with short time resolution. This study tried to find out the possibility of utilizing sea ice monitoring by training a rule-based machine learning model based on learning data produced using high-resolution optical satellite images and performing detection on GOCI-II images. Learning materials were extracted from Liaodong Bay in the Bohai Sea from 2021 to 2022, and a Random Forest (RF) model using GOCI-II was constructed to compare qualitative and quantitative with sea ice areas obtained from existing normalized difference snow index (NDSI) based and high-resolution satellite images. Unlike NDSI index-based results, which underestimated the sea ice area, this study detected relatively detailed sea ice areas and confirmed that sea ice can be classified by type, enabling sea ice monitoring. If the accuracy of the detection model is improved through the construction of continuous learning materials and influencing factors on sea ice formation in the future, it is expected that it can be used in the field of sea ice monitoring in high-altitude ocean areas.

• Journal of the Korea Society for Simulation
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.11-22
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• 2021

Sonobuoy is widely used as a very important sensor in combat management system using P-3 patrol aircraft due to its advantages of rapid searching into wide exploration range. It is necessary to verify the performance of developed sonobuoy system using various maritime test data in order to be successfully applied in combat management system. But it is difficult to acquire various real maritime data because it needs much time and effort. Therefore we have developed in this paper a synthetic signal generator and a simulator that they can verify the performance of sonobuoy system and evaluate its operational effectiveness without conducting maritime test. We have synthesized target signals based on the characteristics of underwater sound sources, and then developed the synthesized signal generator which consider to sound propagation etc. like as underwater environment. And in the simulator development we use a HMI technique to enhance the convenience of operator, and design to verify the performance of sonobuoy system. The developed signal generator and simulator can be used as useful tools to evaluate the operational effectiveness such as optimal deployment of sonobuoy in combat management system using P-3 patrol aircraft.