• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.5_2
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• pp.859-873
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• 2023

Wildfires cause a lot of environmental and economic damage to the Earth over time. Various experiments have examined the harmful effects of wildfires. Also, studies for detecting wildfires and pollutant emissions using satellite remote sensing have been conducted for many years. The wildfire product for the Geostationary Environmental Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS), Korea's first environmental satellite sensor, has not been provided yet. In this study, a false-color composite for better expression of wildfire smoke was created from GEMS and used in a U-Net model for wildfire detection. Then, a classification model was constructed to distinguish yellow dust from the wildfire smoke candidate pixels. The proposed method can contribute to disaster monitoring using GEMS images.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.38 no.5_3
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• pp.967-977
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• 2022

The occurrence and intensity of wildfires are increasing with climate change. Emissions from forest fire smoke are recognized as one of the major causes affecting air quality and the greenhouse effect. The use of satellite product and machine learning is essential for detection of forest fire smoke. Until now, research on forest fire smoke detection has had difficulties due to difficulties in cloud identification and vague standards of boundaries. The purpose of this study is to detect forest fire smoke using Level 1 and Level 2 data of Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS), a Korean environmental satellite sensor, and machine learning. In March 2022, the forest fire in Gangwon-do was selected as a case. Smoke pixel classification modeling was performed by producing wildfire smoke label images and inputting GEMS Level 1 and Level 2 data to the random forest model. In the trained model, the importance of input variables is Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD), 380 nm and 340 nm radiance difference, Ultra-Violet Aerosol Index (UVAI), Visible Aerosol Index (VisAI), Single Scattering Albedo (SSA), formaldehyde (HCHO), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), 380 nm radiance, and 340 nm radiance were shown in that order. In addition, in the estimation of the forest fire smoke probability (0 ≤ p ≤ 1) for 2,704 pixels, Mean Bias Error (MBE) is -0.002, Mean Absolute Error (MAE) is 0.026, Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) is 0.087, and Correlation Coefficient (CC) showed an accuracy of 0.981.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2024

Busan is the 6th largest port city in the world, where nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) emissions from transportation and port industries are significant. This study aims to assess the NO₂ products of the Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) over Busan using ground-based instruments (i.e., surface in-situ network and Pandora). The GEMS vertical column densities of NO₂ showed reasonable consistency in the spatiotemporal variations, comparable to the previous studies. The GEMS data showed a consistent seasonal trend of NO₂ with the Korea Ministry of Environment network and Pandora in 2022, which is higher in winter and lower in summer. These agreements prove the capability of the GEMS data to monitor the air quality in Busan. The correlation coefficient and the mean bias error between the GEMS and Pandora NO₂ over Busan in 2022 were 0.53 and 0.023 DU, respectively. The GEMS NO₂ data were also positively correlated with the ground-based in-situ network with a correlation coefficient of 0.42. However, due to the significant spatiotemporal variabilities of the NO₂, the GEMS footprint size can hardly resolve small-scale variabilities such as the emissions from the road and point sources. In addition, relative biases of the GEMS NO₂ retrievals to the Pandora data showed seasonal variabilities, which is attributable to the air mass factor estimation of the GEMS. Further studies with more measurement locations for longer periods of data can better contribute to assessing the GEMS NO₂ data. Reliable GEMS data can further help us understand the Asian air quality with the diurnal variabilities.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.53-66
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• 2018

The information of surface reflectance ($R_{sfc}$) is important for the heat balance and the environmental/climate monitoring. The $R_{sfc}$ sensitivity to error-induced variables for the Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) retrieval from geostationary-orbit satellite observations at 300-500 nm was investigated, utilizing polar-orbit satellite data of the MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Ozone Mapping Instrument (OMI), and the radiative transfer model (RTM) experiment. The variables in this study can be cloud, Rayleigh-scattering, aerosol, ozone and surface type. The cloud detection in high-resolution MODIS pixels ($1km{\times}1km$) was compared with that in GEMS-scale pixels ($8km{\times}7km$). The GEMS detection was consistent (~79%) with the MODIS result. However, the detection probability in partially-cloudy (${\leq}40%$) GEMS pixels decreased due to other effects (i.e., aerosol and surface type). The Rayleigh-scattering effect in RGB images was noticeable over ocean, based on the RTM calculation. The reflectance at top of atmosphere ($R_{toa}$) increased with aerosol amounts in case of $R_{sfc}$<0.2, but decreased in $R_{sfc}{\geq}0.2$. The $R_{sfc}$ errors due to the aerosol increased with wavelength in the UV, but were constant or slightly decreased in the visible. The ozone absorption was most sensitive at 328 nm in the UV region (328-354 nm). The $R_{sfc}$ error was +0.1 because of negative total ozone anomaly (-100 DU) under the condition of $R_{sfc}=0.15$. This study can be useful to estimate $R_{sfc}$ uncertainties in the GEMS retrieval.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.461-474
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• 2020

Korea launched Geostationary Environmental Monitoring Satellite (GEMS), a UV/visible spectrometer that measure pollution gases on 18 February 2020. Because satellite retrieval is an ill-posed inverse solving process, the validation with ground-based measurements or other satellite measurements is essential to obtain reliable products. For this purpose, satellite-based OMI and OMPS total column ozone (TCO), and ground-based Pandora TCO in Busan and Seoul were selected for future GEMS validation. First of all, the goal of this study is to validate the ground ozone data using characteristics that satellite data provide coherent ozone measurements on a global basis, although satellite data have a larger error than the ground-based measurements. In the cross validation between Pandora and OMI TCO, we have found abnormal deviation in ozone time series from Pandora #29 observed in Seoul. This shows that it is possible to perform inverse validation of ground data using satellite data. Then OMPS TCO was compared with verified Pandora TCO. Both data shows a correlation coefficient of 0.97, an RMSE of less than 2 DU and the OMPS-Pandora relative mean difference of >4%. The result also shows the OMPS-Pandora relative mean difference with SZA, TCO, cross-track position and season have insignificant dependence on those variables.In addition, we showed that appropriate thresholds depending on the spatial resolution of each satellite sensor are required to eliminate the impact of the cloud on Pandora TCO.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.189-198
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• 2022

In this present study, we investigated the effect of the offset correction factor calculation method on the sulfur dioxide (SO₂) column density in the SO₂ retrieval algorithm of the Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) launched in February 2020. The GEMS operational SO₂ retrieval algorithm is the Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (DOAS) - Principal Component Analysis (PCA) Hybrid algorithm. In the GEMS Hybrid algorithm, the offset correction process is essential to correct the absorption effect of ozone appearing in the SO₂ slant column density (SCD) obtained after spectral fitting using DOAS. Since the SO₂ column density may depend on the conditions for calculating the offset correction factor, it is necessary to apply an appropriate offset correction value. In this present study, the offset correction values were calculated for days with many cloud pixels and few cloud pixels, respectively. And a comparison of the SO₂ column density retrieved by applying each offset correction factor to the GEMS operational SO₂ retrieval algorithm was performed. When the offset correction value was calculated using radiance data of GEMS on a day with many cloud pixels was used, the standard deviation of the SO₂ column density around India and the Korean Peninsula, which are the edges of the GEMS observation area, was 1.27 DU, and 0.58 DU, respectively. And around Hong Kong, where there were many cloud pixels, the SO₂ standard deviation was 0.77 DU. On the other hand, when the offset correction value calculated using the GEMS data on the day with few cloud pixels was used, the standard deviation of the SO₂ column density slightly decreased around India (0.72 DU), Korean Peninsula (0.38 DU), and Hong Kong (0.44 DU). We found that the SO₂ retrieval was relatively stable compared to the SO₂ retrieval case using the offset correction value on the day with many cloud pixels. Accordingly, to minimize the uncertainty of the GEMS SO₂ retrieval algorithm and to obtain a stable retrieval, it is necessary to calculate the offset correction factor under appropriate conditions.

• Atmosphere
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.247-261
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• 2022

The importance of ozone monitoring has been growing due to the polar ozone depletion and increasing tropospheric ozone concentration over many Asian countries, including South Korea. In-situ measurement of the vertical ozone structure has advantages for ozone research, but observations are not sufficient. In this study, ozonesonde measurements were performed from October to November in Yongin during the GMAP (The GEMS Map of Air Pollution) 2021 campaign. The procedure for ozonesonde preparation and initial analysis of the observed ozone profile are documented. The observed ozone concentrations are in good agreement with previous studies in the troposphere, and they capture the stratospheric ozone distribution as well, including stratosphere-troposphere exchange event. These balloon-borne in situ measurements can contribute to the evaluation of remote sensing measurements such as Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS). This document focuses on providing essential information of ozonesonde preparation and measurement for domestic researchers.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.407-438
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• 2013

Current status and future direction of air quality modeling for monitoring and forecasting air quality in East Asia were discussed in this paper. An integrated air quality modeling system, combining (1) emission processing and modeling, (2) meteorological model simulation, (3) chemistry-transport model (CTM) simulation, (4) ground-based and satellite-retrieved observations, and (5) data assimilation, was introduced. Also, the strategies for future development of the integrated air quality modeling system in East Asia was discussed in this paper. In particular, it was emphasized that the successful use and development of the air quality modeling system should depend on the active applications of the data sets from incumbent and upcoming LEO/GEO (Low Earth Orbit/Geostationary Earth Orbit) satellites. This is particularly true, since Korea government successfully launched Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI) in June, 2010 and has another plan to launch Geostationary Environmental Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) in 2018, in order to monitor the air quality and emissions in/around the Korean peninsula as well as over East Asia.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.777-788
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• 2021

Since aerosol has a relatively short duration and significant spatial variation, satellite observations become more important for the spatially and temporally continuous quantification of aerosol. However, optical remote sensing has the disadvantage that it cannot detect AOD (Aerosol Optical Depth) for the regions covered by clouds or the regions with extremely high concentrations. Such missing values can increase the data uncertainty in the analyses of the Earth's environment. This paper presents a spatial gap-filling framework using a univariate statistical method such as DCT-PLS (Discrete Cosine Transform-based Penalized Least Square Regression) and FMM (Fast Matching Method) inpainting. We conducted a feasibility test for the hourly AOD product from AHI (Advanced Himawari Imager) between January 1 and December 31, 2019, and compared the accuracy statistics of the two spatial gap-filling methods. When the null-pixel area is not very large (null-pixel ratio < 0.6), the validation statistics of DCT-PLS and FMM techniques showed high accuracy of CC=0.988 (MAE=0.020) and CC=0.980 (MAE=0.028), respectively. Together with the AI-based gap-filling method using extra explanatory variables, the DCT-PLS and FMM techniques can be tested for the low-resolution images from the AMI (Advanced Meteorological Imager) of GK2A (Geostationary Korea Multi-purpose Satellite 2A), GEMS (Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer) and GOCI2 (Geostationary Ocean Color Imager) of GK2B (Geostationary Korea Multi-purpose Satellite 2B) and the high-resolution images from the CAS500 (Compact Advanced Satellite) series soon.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.36 no.2_1
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• pp.121-137
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• 2020

Data from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) satellite and national emission inventories were used in this study to analyze air quality in East Asia and estimate the impact of domestic and foreign emissions on South Korea's air quality, based on which future emissions were predicted. The concentration trends of nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and sulfur dioxide (SO₂) in East Asia from 2005 to 2015 showed that both substances were highest in North East China (NEC), followed by South East China (SEC) and Seoul Metropolitan Area (SMA). The average SO₂ concentration was 1.63 times higher in NEC than in SMA. Analysis on the ratios of NO₂/SO₂ and NO_x/SO_x provides an indirect picture of the effect of transboundary air pollutants on atmospheric composition in Korea. The concentration ratio of NO₂/SO₂ in all study areas peaked in 2013 and SMA's emission ratio of NO_x/SO_x increased in 2015 by over 22% from 2013. Despite the reduction in domestic emissions, the concentration-to-emission ratios (NO₂/NO_x, SO₂/SO_x) rose gradually, which implies that other factors besides domestic emissions (e.g., foreign sources, lifetime, etc.) influence air quality in SMA. We estimated future emissions of NO_x and SO_x in SMA to be 296.2 and 39.0 ktons in 2025 and 284.4 and 33.8 ktons in 2035, respectively. Application of the inter-comparison techniques of this study to the data from the Geostationary Environment Monitoring Instrument (GEMS) is expected to provide concrete information which can be used to improve national emission inventories and figure out factors and sources that affect domestic air quality.