• Atmosphere
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.471-483
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• 2013

Nighttime sea fog detection from satellite is very hard due to limitation in using visible channels. Currently, most widely used method for the detection is the Dual Channel Difference (DCD) method based on Brightness Temperature Difference between 3.7 and 11 ${\mu}m$ channel (BTD). However, this method have difficulty in distinguishing between fog and low cloud, and sometimes misjudges middle/high cloud as well as clear scene as fog. Using CALIPSO Lidar Profile measurements, we have analyzed the intrinsic problems in detecting nighttime sea fog from various satellite remote sensing algorithms and suggested the direction for the improvement of the algorithm. From the comparison with CALIPSO measurements for May-July in 2011, the DCD method excessively overestimates foggy pixels (2542 pixels). Among them, only 524 pixel are real foggy pixels, but 331 pixels and 1687 pixels are clear and other type of clouds, respectively. The 514 of real foggy pixels accounts for 70% of 749 foggy pixels identified by CALIPSO. Our proposed new algorithm detects foggy pixels by comparing the difference between cloud top temperature and underneath sea surface temperature from assimilated data along with the DCD method. We have used two types of cloud top temperature, which obtained from 11 ${\mu}m$ brightness temperature (B_S1) and operational COMS algorithm (B_S2). The detected foggy 1794 pixels from B_S1 and 1490 pixel from B_S2 are significantly reduced the overestimation detected by the DCD method. However, 477 and 446 pixels have been found to be real foggy pixels, 329 and 264 pixels be clear, and 989 and 780 pixels be other type of clouds, detected by B_S1 and B_S2 respectively. The analysis of the operational COMS fog detection algorithm reveals that the cloud screening process was strictly enforced, which resulted in underestimation of foggy pixel. The 538 of total detected foggy pixels obtain only 187 of real foggy pixels, but 61 of clear pixels and 290 of other type clouds. Our analysis suggests that there is no winner for nighttime sea fog detection algorithms, but loser because real foggy pixels are less than 30% among the foggy pixels declared by all algorithms. This overwhelming evidence reveals that current nighttime sea fog algorithms have provided a lot of misjudged information, which are mostly originated from difficulty in distinguishing between clear and cloudy scene as well as fog and other type clouds. Therefore, in-depth researches are urgently required to reduce the enormous error in nighttime sea fog detection from satellite.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.435-452
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• 2016

Land Surface Temperature (LST) has been operationally retrieved from the Communication, Ocean, and Meteorological Satellite (COMS) data by the spilt-window method (CSW_v2.0) developed by Cho et al. (2015). Although the CSW_v2.0 retrieved the LST with a reasonable quality compared to the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) LST data, it showed a relatively poor performance for the strong inversion and lapse rate conditions. To solve this problem, the LST retrieval algorithm (CSW_v2.0) was updated using the simulation results of radiative transfer model (MODTRAN 4.0) by considering the diurnal variations of air temperature. In general, the upgraded version, CSW_v3.0 showed a similar correlation coefficient between the prescribed LSTs and retrieved LSTs (0.99), the relatively smaller bias (from -0.03 K to-0.012 K) and the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) (from 1.39 K to 1.138 K). Particularly, CSW_v3.0 improved the systematic problems of CSW_v2.0 that were encountered when temperature differences between LST and air temperature are very large and/or small (inversion layers and superadiabatic lapse rates), and when the brightness temperature differences and surface emissivity differences were large. The bias and RMSE of CSW_v2.0 were reduced by 10-30% in CSW_v3.0. The indirect validation results using the MODIS LST data showed that CSW_3.0 improved the retrieval accuracy of LST in terms of bias (from -0.629 K to -0.049 K) and RMSE (from 2.537 K to 2.502 K) compared to the CSW_v2.0.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.359-367
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• 2008

TRMM TMI data were used to investigate a relationship between physical parameters from microwave sensor and typhoon intensities from June to September, 2004. Several data such as 85GHz brightness temperature (TB), polarization corrected temperature (PCT), precipitable water, ice content, rain rate, and latent heat release retrieved from the TMI observation were correlated to the maximum wind speeds in the best-track database by RSMC-Tokyo. Correlation coefficient between TB and typhoon intensity was -0.2 - -0.4 with a maximum value in the 2.5 degree radius circle from the center of tropical cyclone. The value of correlation between in precipitable water, rain, latent heat, and typhoon intensity is in the range of 0.2-0.4. Correlation analysis with respect to storm intensity showed that maximum correlation is observed at 1.0-1.5 degree radius circle from the center of tropical cyclone in the initial stage of tropical cyclone, while maximum correlation is shown in 0.5 degree radius in typhoon stage. Correlation coefficient was used to produce regressed intensities and adopted for typhoon Rusa (2002) and Maemi (2003). Multiple regression with 85GHz TB and precipitable water was found to provide an improved typhoon intensity when taking into account the storm size. The results indicate that it may be possible to use TB and precipitable water from satellite observation as a predictor to estimate the intensity of a tropical cyclone.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.309-324
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• 2008

In this study the retrieval algorithms have been developed to retrieve total precipitable water (TPW) from Terra/Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) infrared measurements using a physical iterative retrieval method and a split-window technique over East Asia. Retrieved results from these algorithms were validated against Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) over ocean and radiosonde observation over land and were analyzed for investigating the key factors affecting the accuracy of results and physical processes of retrieval methods. Atmospheric profiles from Regional Data Assimilation and Prediction System (RDAPS), which produces analysis and prediction field of atmospheric variables over East Asia, were used as first-guess profiles for the physical retrieval algorithm. We used RTTOV-7 radiative transfer model to calculate the upwelling radiance at the top of the atmosphere. For the split-window technique, regression coefficients were obtained by relating the calculated brightness temperature to the paired radiosonde-estimated TPW. Physically retrieved TPWs were validated against SSM/I and radiosonde observations for 14 cases in August and December 2004 and results showed that the physical method improves the accuracy of TPW with smaller bias in comparison to TPWs of RDAPS data, MODIS products, and TPWs from split-window technique. Although physical iterative retrieval can reduce the bias of first-guess profiles and bring in more accurate TPWs, the retrieved results show the dependency upon initial guess fields. It is thought that the dependency is due to the fact that the water vapor absorption channels used in this study may not reflect moisture features in particular near surface.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.51-69
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• 1993

Precipitable Water(PW) are retrieved over the tropical and subtropical Pacific Ocean from TOVS infrared and microwave channel brightness temperature and OLR observations by means of stepwise linear regression. The retrieved TOVS PW fields generated by PW$_{sfc}$(71.1 % of the variance and 0.62 g cm$^{-2}$ standard error over the surface) and PW$_{700500}$(71.7 % and 0.17 g cm$^{-2}$ over the 700 - 500 hPa layer) revealed more evolving synoptic signals over the tropical and subtropical Pacific Ocean. The PW$_{sfc}$ dose not show significantly the TP feature because of the representation of the lower PW for high-level clouds not associated with deep convection. There exists some elusion to trace the TP on the PW$_{sfc}$ field if any supplementary information does not provide. But ECMWF analysis has a general tendency of drying the subtropics and moistening the ITCZ (InterTropical Convergence Zone) and SPCZ(South Pacific Convergence Zone). However, although ECMWF analysis is fairly successful in capturing mean patterms, it is unsuccessful in following active synoptic signal like a tropical plume. Similarly, SMMR-PW does not represent the TP well which consists of the highand middle-level clouds, but PW$_{sfc}$ shows underestimated moistness of TP and does not depict significant signal of TP. In the PW field derived from microwave observations, the TP can not be recognized well. Furthermore, the signature of PW$_{sfc}$ was different from OLR for the TP, which implies the presence of high- and middle-layer thin clouds, but in a closer agreement for deep and active convection areas which contain thick middle- and lower-layer clouds; though OLR represented the cloudiness in the tropics well. In synoptically active regions, it differed from OLR analysis, primarily bacause of actual differences in water vapor and cloud features. The signature of PW$_{sfc}$ was different from OLR for the TP.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.83-100
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• 1995

The land-use has changed rapidly during the last two decades in accordance with urbanization in the Seoul Metropolitan Region. As a result of these changes, the local climate has undergone changes as well. This study intends to define the land-use changes, and then to show how they have brought in significant changes in the local climates. Land-use changes in the study area so repidly that up-to date maps and documents are not available at present. Therefore, Landsat data for land-use classification and NOAA AVHRR thermal data for the temperature fields were analyzed. Additionary, to visualize the effect of the land-use on the local climate, computer-enhanced brightness temperatures, Green Belt and city boundaries were overlaid on land-use patterns obtained from satellite images using GIS techniques. The results of analysis demonstrate that Green Space in the Seoul Metropolitan Region decreased from 94% to 62% while urban land-use increased ten times, from 4% to 39% for the period of 1972-1992. The resulting disappearance of biomass caused by land-use changes may have implications for the local-and micro-climate. The results show that the local climate of the study area became drier and warmer. This study also suggests a need for further studies of man's effects on local climate to minimize adverse influences and hazardous pollution and efficacious ways for urban planning.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.9-20
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• 1999

The use of climatic information is essential in the industial society. More specialized weather servies are required to perform better industrial acivities including agriculture. Especially, crop models require daily weather data of crop growing area or cropping zones, where routine weather observations are rare. Estimates of the spatial distribution of daily climates might complement the low density of standard weather observation stations. This study was conducted to estimate the spatial distribution of daily minimum and maximum temperatures in Korean Peninsula. A topoclimatological technique was first applied to produce reasonable estimates of monthly climatic normals based on 1km $\times$ 1km grid cell over study area. Harmonic analysis method was then adopted to convert the monthly climatic normals into daily climatic normals. The daily temperatures for each grid cell were derived from a spatial interpolation procedure based on inverse-distance weighting of the observed deviation from the climatic normals at the nearest 4 standard weather stations. Data collected from more than 300 automatic weather systems were then used to validate the final estimates on several dates in 1997. Final step to confirm accuracy of the estimated temperature fields was comparing the distribution pattern with the brightness temperature fields derived from NOAA/AVHRR. Results show that differences between the estimated and the observed temperatures at 20 randomly selected automatic weather systems(AWS) range from -3.$0^{\circ}C$ to + 2.5$^{\circ}C$ in daily maximum, and from -1.8$^{\circ}C$ to + 2.2$^{\circ}C$ in daily minimum temperature. The estimation errors, RMSE, calculated from the data collected at about 300 AWS range from $1.5^{\circ}C$ to 2.5$^{\circ}C$ for daily maximum/minimum temperatures.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.45-59
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• 2009

This research presents the effect of Asian dust on the derived sea surface temperature (SST) from measurements of the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) instrument flown onboard NOAA polar orbiting satellites. To analyze the effect, A VHRR infrared brightness temperature (TB) is estimated from simulated radiance calculated from radiative transfer model on various atmospheric conditions. Vertical profiles of temperature, pressure, and humidity from radiosonde observation are used to build up the East Asian atmospheric conditions in spring. Aerosol optical thickness (AOT) and size distribution are derived from skyradiation measurements to be used as inputs to the radiative transfer model. The simulation results show that single channel TB at window region is depressed under the Asian dust condition. The magnitude of depression is about 2K at nadir under moderate aerosol loading, but the magnitude reaches up to 4K at slant path. The dual channel difference (DCD) in spilt window region is also reduced under the Asian dust condition, but the reduction of DCD is much smaller than that shown in single channel TB simulation. Owing to the depression of TB, SST has cold bias. In addition, the effect of AOT on SST is amplified at large satellite zenith angle (SZA), resulting in high variance in derived SSTs. The SST depression due to the presence of Asian dust can be expressed as a linear function of AOT and SZA. On the basis of this relationship, the effect of Asian dust on the SST retrieval from the conventional daytime multi-channel SST algorithm can be derived as a function of AOT and SZA.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.469-483
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• 2006

An algorithm was developed to estimate stability indices (SI) over the Korean peninsula using Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) infrared brightness temperatures (TBs). The SI is defined as the stability of the atmosphere in the hydrostatic equilibrium with respect to the vertical displacements and is used as an index for the potential severe storm development. Using atmosphere temperature and moisture profiles from Regional Data Assimilation and Prediction System (RDAPS) as initial guess data for a nonlinear physical relaxation method, K index (KI), KO Index (KO), lifted index (LI), and maximum buoyancy (MB) were estimated. A fast radiative transfer model, RTTOV-7, is utilized for reducing the computational burden related to the physical relaxation method. The estimated TBs from the radiative transfer simulation are in good agreement with observed MODIS TBs. To test usefulness for the short-term forecast of severe storms, the algorithm is applied to the rapidly developed convective storms. Compared with the SIs from the RDAPS forecasts and NASA products, the MODIS SI obtained in this research predicts the instability better over the pre-convection areas. Thus, it is expected that the nowcasting and short-term forecast can be improved by utilizing the algorithms developed in this study.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.34 no.6_1
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• pp.1101-1117
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• 2018

The clear sky radiance (CSR) is one of the baseline products of the Himawari-8 which was launched on October, 2014. The CSR contributes to numerical weather prediction (NWP) accuracy through the data assimilation; especially water vapor channel CSR has good impact on the forecast in high level atmosphere. The focus of this study is the quality analysis of the CSR of the Himawari-8 geostationary satellite. We used the operational CSR (or clear sky brightness temperature) products in JMA (Japan Meteorological Agency) as observation data; for a background field, we employed the CSR simulated using the Radiative Transfer for TOVS (RTTOV) with the atmospheric state from the global model of KMA (Korea Meteorological Administration). We investigated data characteristics and analyzed observation minus background statistics of each channel with respect to regional and seasonal variability. Overall results for the analysis period showed that the water vapor channels (6.2, 6.9, and $7.3{\mu}m$) had a positive mean bias where as the window channels(10.4, 11.2, and $12.4{\mu}m$) had a negative mean bias. The magnitude of biases and Uncertainty result varied with the regional and the seasonal conditions, thus these should be taken into account when using CSR data. This study is helpful for the pre-processing of Himawari-8/Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI) CSR data assimilation. Furthermore, this study also can contribute to preparing for the utilization of products from the Geo-Kompsat-2A (GK-2A), which will be launched in 2018 by the National Meteorological Satellite Center (NMSC) of KMA.