• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.23-31
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• 2013

Microwave remote sensing can help monitor the land surface water cycle and crop growth. This type of remote sensing has great potential over conventional remote sensing using the visible and infrared regions due to its all-weather day-and-night imaging capabilities. In this paper, a ground-based multi-frequency (L-, C-, and X-band) polarimetric scatterometer system capable of making observations every 10 min was developed. This system was used to monitor the wheat over an entire growth cycle. The polarimetric scatterometer components were installed inside an air-conditioned shelter to maintain constant temperature and humidity during the data acquisition period. Backscattering coefficients for the crop growing season were compared with biophysical measurements. Backscattering coefficients for all frequencies and polarizations increased until dat of year 137 and then decreased along with fresh weight, dry weight, plant height, and vegetation water content (VWC). The range of backscatter for X-band was lower than for L- and C-band. We examined the relationship between the backscattering coefficients of each band (frequency/polarization) and the various wheat growth parameters. The correlation between the different vegetation parameters and backscatter decreased with increasing frequency. L-band HH-polarization (L-HH) is best suited for the monitoring of fresh weight (r=0.98), dry weight (r=0.96), VWC (r=0.98), and plant height (r=0.96). The correlation coefficients were highest for L-band observations and lowest for X-band. Also, HH-polarization had the highest correlations among the polarization channels (HH, VV and HV). Based on the correlation analysis between backscattering coefficients in each band and wheat growth parameters, we developed prediction equations using the L-HH based on the observed relationships between L-HH and fresh weight, dry weight, VWC and plant height. The results of these analyses will be useful in determining the optimum microwave frequency and polarizations necessary for estimating vegetation parameters in the wheat.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• v.1
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• pp.138-141
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• 2006

In developing algorithms to retrieve the sea surface temperature (SST) and sea surface wind speed from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR) aboard the AQUA and the Advanced Earth Observation Satellite-II (ADEOS-II), data from the SeaWinds aboard ADEOS-II were helpful. Since features of the ocean microwave emission (Tb) related with ocean wind are not well understood, in case of using only AMSR data, combination of AMSR and SeaWinds revealed pronounced features about the ocean Tb. Two results from combinations of the two sensors were shown in this paper. One result was obtained at wind speeds over about 6m/s, in which the ocean Tb varies with the air-sea temperature difference, even though the SeaWinds wind speed is fixed at the same values. The ocean Tb increases as the air-sea temperature difference becomes negative, i.e., the boundary condition becomes unstable. This result indicates that the air temperature should be included in AMSR SST algorithm. The second result was obtained from comparison of two wind speeds between AMSR and SeaWinds. There is a small difference of two wind speeds, which might be related with several mechanisms, such as evaporation and plankton.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• v.1
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• pp.398-401
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• 2006

Dual channel Radiometer for Earth and Atmospheric Monitoring (DREAM) is the main payload on Science and Technology SATellite-2 (STSAT-2) of Korea. DREAM is two-channel microwave radiometer with linear polarization, and operating at center frequencies of 23.8 GHz and 37 GHz. An equation for DREAM calibration is derived which accounts for losses and re-radiation in the microwave components of the radiometer due to physical temperature. This paper describes the radiometric calibration equation to get antenna temperature ($T_A$) from the measured output data. At lower altitude, the measured deep space temperature is contaminated by middle atmosphere and earth radiation. In this paper, we presented the detail mathematical formulation to find the altitude up to which cold source brightness temperature is not affected by earth and middle atmosphere radiation. The DREAMPFM data is used to calculate the performance parameters (linearity, sensitivity, dynamic range, and etc.) of the system.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.543-553
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• 2011

Sea ice concentration calculated from the AMSR-E onboard Aqua satellite by using NASA Team2 sea ice algorithm has proven to be very accurate over sea ice in Antarctic Ocean. When glacial ice such as icebergs and ice shelves are dominant in an AMSR-E footprint, the accuracy of the ice concentration calculated from NASA Team2 algorithm is not well maintained due to the different microwave characteristics of the glacial ice from sea ice. We extracted the concentrations of sea ice and glacial ice from two ENVISAT ASAR images of George V coast in southern Antarctica, and compared them with NASA Team2 sea ice concentration. The result showed that the NASA Team2 algorithm underestimates the concentration of glacial ice. To interpret the large deviation of estimation over glacial ice, we analyzed the characteristics of microwave radiation of the glacial ice in PR(polarization ratio), GR(spectral gradient ratio), $PR_R$(rotated PR), and ${\Delta}GR$ domain. We found that glacial ice occupies a unique region in the PR, GR, $PR_R$, and ${\Delta}GR$ domain different from other types of ice such as ice type A, B, and C, and open water. This implies that glacial ice can be added as a new category of ice to the AMSR-E NASA Team2 sea ice algorithm.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.34 no.6_4
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• pp.1503-1517
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• 2018

Mt. Baekdu is a stratovolcano located at the border between China and North Korea and is known to have formed through its differentiation stage after the Oligocene epoch in the Cenozoic era. There has been a growing interest in the magma re-activity of Mt. Baekdu volcano since 2010. Several research projects have been conducted by government such as Korea Meteorological Administration and Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources. Because, however, the Mt. Baekdu volcano is located far from South Korea, it is quite difficult to collect in-situ observations by terrestrial equipment. Remote sensing is a science to analyze and interpret information without direct physical contact with a target object. Various types of platform such as automobile, unmanned aerial vehicle, aircraft and satellite can be used for carrying a payload. In the past several decades, numerous volcanic studies have been conducted by remotely sensed observations using wide spectrum of wavelength channels in electromagnetic waves. In particular, radar remote sensing has been widely used for volcano monitoring in that microwave channel can gather surface's information without less limitation like day and night or weather condition. Radar interferometric technique which utilized phase information of radar signal enables to estimate surface displacement such as volcano, earthquake, ground subsidence or glacial movement, etc. In 2018, long-term research project for collaborative observation for Mt. Baekdu volcano between Korea and China were selected by Korea government. A volcanic specialized research center has been established by the selected project. The purpose of this paper is to introduce about remote sensing techniques for volcano monitoring and to review selected studies with remote sensing techniques to monitor Mt. Baekdu volcano. The acquisition status of the archived observations of six synthetic aperture radar satellites which are in orbit now was investigated for application of radar interferometry to monitor Mt. Baekdu volcano. We will conduct a time-series analysis using collected synthetic aperture radar images.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.191-201
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• 2011

Soybean has widely grown for its edible bean which has numerous uses. Microwave remote sensing has a great potential over the conventional remote sensing with the visible and infrared spectra due to its all-weather day-and-night imaging capabilities. In this investigation, a ground-based polarimetric scatterometer operating at multiple frequencies was used to continuously monitor the crop conditions of a soybean field. Polarimetric backscatter data at L, C, and X-bands were acquired every 10 minutes on the microwave observations at various soybean stages. The polarimetric scatterometer consists of a vector network analyzer, a microwave switch, radio frequency cables, power unit and a personal computer. The polarimetric scatterometer components were installed inside an air-conditioned shelter to maintain constant temperature and humidity during the data acquisition period. The backscattering coefficients were calculated from the measured data at incidence angle $40^{\circ}$ and full polarization (HH, VV, HV, VH) by applying the radar equation. The soybean growth data such as leaf area index (LAI), plant height, fresh and dry weight, vegetation water content and pod weight were measured periodically throughout the growth season. We measured the temporal variations of backscattering coefficients of the soybean crop at L, C, and X-bands during a soybean growth period. In the three bands, VV-polarized backscattering coefficients were higher than HH-polarized backscattering coefficients until mid-June, and thereafter HH-polarized backscattering coefficients were higher than VV-, HV-polarized back scattering coefficients. However, the cross-over stage (HH > VV) was different for each frequency: DOY 200 for L-band and DOY 210 for both C and X-bands. The temporal trend of the backscattering coefficients for all bands agreed with the soybean growth data such as LAI, dry weight and plant height; i.e., increased until about DOY 271 and decreased afterward. We plotted the relationship between the backscattering coefficients with three bands and soybean growth parameters. The growth parameters were highly correlated with HH-polarization at L-band (over r=0.92).

• 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.14 no.2
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• pp.165-174
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• 1998

The observation of liquid water content(LWC) and the estimation of precipitation enhancement by cloud seeding were made over the Andong in Korea from March 1997 through Feb 1998. A dual-channel microwave radiometer was used to measure the liquid water content and water vapor. It was shown that the 90% of observational period had the amount of less than 0.1 mm in LWC, and that the amount of precipitation was proportionally increased to liquid water content. The amount of LWC has maximum in summer and minimum in winter. The content of liquid cloud water was showed higher value from the time of 12 to the time of 17 except for summer season in which it extremely fluctuated with a large precipitation. The majority of liquid water content over the area occurred with westerly and southwesterly wind which were flowed from the Sobaek mountain. The ratio of horizontal LWC flux and vertical precipitation flux, $P_{en}$ is almost ranked in the interval of 0.0~0.5 with maximum of 0.5 in spring, 0.2 in summer and fall, and 0.1 in winter. Accordingly, it is estimated that the potential enhancement of precipitation over Andong area by cloud seeding has high value in spring with westerly wind.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.604-617
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• 2022

Sea surface temperature (SST) is a key variable that can be used to understand ocean-atmosphere phenomena and predict climate change. Satellite microwave remote sensing enables the measurement of SST despite the presence of clouds and precipitation in the sensor path. Therefore, considering the high utilization of microwave SST, it is necessary to continuously verify its accuracy and analyze its error characteristics. In this study, the validation of the microwave global precision measurement (GPM)/GPM microwave imager (GMI) SST around the Northwest Pacific and Korean Peninsula was conducted using surface drifter temperature data for approximately eight years from March 2014 to December 2021. The GMI SST showed a bias of 0.09K and an average root mean square error of 0.97K compared to the actual SST, which was slightly higher than that observed in previous studies. In addition, the error characteristics of the GMI SST were related to environmental factors, such as latitude, distance from the coast, sea wind, and water vapor volume. Errors tended to increase in areas close to coastal areas within 300 km of land and in high-latitude areas. In addition, relatively high errors were found in the range of weak wind speeds (<6 m s^-1) during the day and strong wind speeds (>10 m s^-1) at night. Atmospheric water vapor contributed to high SST differences in very low ranges of <30 mm and in very high ranges of >60 mm. These errors are consistent with those observed in previous studies, in which GMI data were less accurate at low SST and were estimated to be due to differences in land and ocean radiation, wind-induced changes in sea surface roughness, and absorption of water vapor into the microwave atmosphere. These results suggest that the characteristics of the GMI SST differences should be clarified for more extensive use of microwave satellite SST calculations in the seas around the Korean Peninsula, including a part of the Northwest Pacific.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.301-304
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• 2008

Since longer wavelength microwave radiation can penetrate clouds, satellite passive microwave sensors can observe sea ice of the entire polar region on a daily basis. Thus, it is becoming popular to derive sea ice motion vectors from a pair of satellite passive microwave sensor images observed at one or few day interval. Usually, the accuracies of derived vectors are validated by comparing with the position data of drifting buoys. However, the number of buoys for validation is always quite limited compared to a large number of vectors derived from satellite images. In this study, the sea ice motion vectors automatically derived from pairs of AMSR-E 89GHz images (IFOV = 3.5 ${\times}$ 5.9km) by an image-to-image cross correlation were validated by comparing with sea ice motion vectors manually derived from pairs of cloudless MODIS images (IFOV=250 ${\times}$ 250m). Since AMSR-E and MODIS are both on the same Aqua satellite of NASA, the observation time of both sensors are the same. The relative errors of AMSR-E vectors against MODIS vectors were calculated. The accuracy validation has been conducted for 5 scenes. If we accept relative error of less than 30% as correct vectors, 75% to 92% of AMSR-E vectors derived from one scene were correct. On the other hand, the percentage of correct sea ice vectors derived from a pair of SSM/I 85GHz images (IFOV = 15 ${\times}$ 13km) observed nearly simultaneously with one of the AMSR-E images was 46%. The difference of the accuracy between AMSR-E and SSM/I is reflecting the difference of IFOV. The accuracies of H and V polarization were different from scene to scene, which may reflect the difference of sea ice distributions and their snow cover of each scene.