• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.209-216
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• 1999

KITSAT-3, the third satellite of KITSAT series which has been developed for the last four and half years with purely Korean design and implementation technology, was launched successfully at last. All subsystems were tested and validated during the initial operation of the satellite. During the initaial operation phase, the Earth imaging camera on board KITSAT-3 acquisited several tens of scenes all over the world and transmitted the image data to ground station. The quality of images and the reliability of data transmission-reception system were tested qualititively and quantititively, respectively. In this paper, we summarize the camera, data handling, on-board memory, and image data transmission system of KITSAT-3 as well as the image receiving and archiving system in ground station. The error rate of image data transmission and reception was tested during the initial operation phase. The average data transmission error rate satisfied the initial requirement of less than 1%. The error rate will be reduced through the continuous work of test and stabilization of the ground system hardware.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 1999.11a
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• pp.43-47
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• 1999

In this paper, we describe the configuration of the KITSAT-3 image data receiving, archiving, processing and distribution system in operation. Following the low-cost and software-based design concept, the whole system is composed of three PCs : two for data receiving, archiving and processing which provide a full dual-redundant configuration and one for image catalog browsing which can be accessed by public users. Except that receiving and archiving PCs have serial data ingest boards plugged in, they are configured by general peripherals. This basic and simple hardware configuration made it possible to show that a very low cost system can support a full ground operation for the utilization of high-resolution satellite image data.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 1998.09a
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• pp.252-256
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• 1998

Accurate mapping of satellite images is one of the most important Parts in many remote sensing applications. Since the position and the attitude of a satellite during image acquisition cannot be determined accurately enough, it is normal to have several hundred meters' ground-mapping errors in the systematically corrected images. The users which require a pixel-level or a sub-pixel level mapping accuracy for high-resolution satellite images must use a number of Ground Control Points (GCPs). In this paper, the performance of two geometric correction algorithms is tested and compared. One is the polynomial warping algorithm which is simple and popular enough to be implemented in most of the commercial satellite image processing software. The other is full camera modelling algorithm using Physical orbit-sensor-Earth geometry which is used in satellite image data receiving, pre-processing and distribution stations. Several criteria were considered for the performance analysis : ultimate correction accuracy, GCP representatibility, number of GCPs required, convergence speed, sensitiveness to inaccurate GCPs, usefulness of the correction results. This paper focuses on the usefulness of the precision correction algorithm for regular image pre-processing operations. This means that not only final correction accuracy but also the number of GCPs and their spatial distribution required for an image correction are important factors. Both correction algorithms were implemented and will be used for the precision correction of KITSAT-3 images.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.119-130
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• 1999

At present, many ground stations all over the world are using NORAD orbit element data in order to track and communicate with Earth orbiting satellites. The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) observes thousands of Earth orbiting objects on daily basis and provides their orbital information via internet. The orbital data provided by NORAD, which is also called two line element (TLE) sets, allows ground stations to predict the time-varying positions of satellites accurately enough to communicate with the satellites. In order to complete the mission of a high resolution remote sensing satellite which requires very high positional determination and control accuracy, however, a mission control and tracking ground station is dedicated for the observation and positional determination of the satellite rather than using NORAD orbital sets. In the case of KITSAT-3, NORAD orbital elements are currently used for image acquisition planning and for the processing of acquired images due to the absence of a dedicated KITSAT-3 tracking ground system. In this paper, we tested and analyzed the accuracy of NORAD orbital elements and the appropriate prediction model to determine how accurately a satellite acquisites an image of the location of interest and how accurately a ground processing system can generate the catalog of the images.