• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.477-487
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• 2012

Sea surface winds in the sea off the east coast of Korea were derived from L-band ALOS (Advanced Land Observing Satellite) PALSAR (Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar) data and their characteristics of errors were analyzed. We could retrieve high-resolution wind vectors off the east coast of Korea including the coastal region, which has been substantially unavailable from satellite scatterometers. Retrieved SAR-wind speeds showed a good agreement with in-situ buoy measurement by showing relatively small an root-mean-square (RMS) error of 0.67 m/s. Comparisons of the wind vectors from SAR and scatterometer presented RMS errors of 2.16 m/s and $19.24^{\circ}$, 3.62 m/s and $28.02^{\circ}$ for L-band GMF (Geophysical Model Function) algorithm 2009 and 2007, respectively, which tended to be somewhat higher than the expected limit of satellite scatterometer winds errors. L-band SAR-derived wind field exhibited the characteristic dependence on wind direction and incidence angle. The previous version (L-band GMF 2007) revealed large errors at small incidence angles of less than $21^{\circ}$. By contrast, the L-band GMF 2009, which improved the effect of incidence angle on the model function by considering a quadratic function instead of a linear relationship, greatly enhanced the quality of wind speed from 6.80 m/s to 1.14 m/s at small incident angles. This study addressed that the causes of wind retrieval errors should be intensively studied for diverse applications of L-band SAR-derived winds, especially in terms of the effects of wind direction and incidence angle, and other potential error sources.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.240-252
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• 2005

The relationships between wave and wind around the Korean Peninsula have been analyzed with the data from the buoys moored at five stations (Dugjug-do, Chilbal-do, Geomoon -do, Geoje-do, Donghae) by Korea Meteorological Administration. Generally, the relationship between wave and wind is the highest at the stations in the West Sea and the lowest at the stations in the South Sea, and the middle at the station in the East Sea. The characteristics shown at each station are as follows. Highest wave is developed at Chilbal-do with strong northwesterly wind in winter because the sea is opened in the wind direction and wave is amplified by shoaling effect. At Chilbal-do, wave directions coincide with wind directions relatively well. On the other hand, waves are not fully developed at Dugjug-do in winter due to limited fetch since the sea is blocked by Hwanghae-do in the northwest direction. The limitation in fetch is more serious at the stations in the South Sea. In the South Sea, the direction of dominant northerly wind is blocked by land so that wave heights are small even with very strong northerly wind. In the South Sea, whatever wind direction is, waves dominantly come in the direction from the East China Sea, which are from the south at Geomoon-do and the southwest at Geoje-do. At these directions, waves are coming even with weak wind. At the station in the East Sea, waves are highly developed due to vast area, but not so high as in Chilbal-do because wind and wave directions do not coincide in many cases. As shown, wind direction is important in the wave development as well as wind speed. The reason is that the fetch is determined by wind direction. In the case of long-lasted wind with fixed direction at Chilbal-do and Dugjug-do, wave directions are well coincident with wind directions and wave heights increase with response time, which is the duration between the highest wind and wave. However, in the case of disagreement between wind and wave directions at the station in the East Sea, wave heights do not increase as highly as at Chilbal-do and Dugjug-do in spite of strong wind and longer response time. The results show us that waves are highly developed with strong wind, long fetch, and long duration, and also show that wave development ratios are different at different stations due to environmental factors such as the direction towards sea or land, bottom topography, and the scales of adjacent seas.