• Journal of Space Technology and Applications
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.268-281
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• 2021

Recently, the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) has been increasingly in demand due to its advantage of being able to observe desired points regardless of time and weather. To utilize SAR data, first of all, many pre-processing such as satellite orbit correction, radiometric calibration, multi-looking, and geocoding are required. For analysis of SAR imagery such as object detection, change detection, and DEM(Digital Elevation Model), additional processings are needed. These pre-processing and additional processes are very complex and require a lot of time and computational resources. In order to handle the SAR images easily, the institutions that use SAR images develop analysis tools and provide users. This paper introduces the function and characteristics of representative SAR imagery analysis tools.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.89-95
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• 2017

Ship detection in synthetic aperture radar(SAR)imagery has long been an active research topic and has many applications. In this paper,we propose an efficient method for detecting ships from SAR imagery using filtering. This method exploits ship masking using a median filter that considers maximum ship sizes and detects ships from the reference image, to which a Non-Local means (NL-means) filter is applied for speckle de-noising and a differential image created from the difference between the reference image and the median filtered image. As the pixels of the ship in the SAR imagery have sufficiently higher values than the surrounding sea, the ship detection process is composed primarily of filtering based on this characteristic. The performance test for this method is validated using KOMPSAT-5 (Korea Multi-Purpose Satellite-5) SAR imagery. According to the accuracy assessment, the overall accuracy of the region that does not include land is 76.79%, and user accuracy is 71.31%. It is demonstrated that the proposed detection method is suitable to detect ships in SAR imagery and enables us to detect ships more easily and efficiently.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.1-23
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• 2009

This study applied satellite radar imagery to identify flooded areas and examined post-flooding conditions using time-series satellite radar imagery for the development of flood damage mitigation strategies. Using time-series satellite radar images, this study constructed a map delineating areas vulnerable to frequent flood damage. The extracted flooded areas were combined with reference land use maps to examine flood damage by land use type. Major landuse types with severe flood damage were agricultural and forested areas. The analysis of the damage conditions, in terms of land use, served as the basis for developing flood damage mitigation policies, in conjunction with land use planning. The policies for flood damage mitigation can be summarized as land use regulations, land use planning, and flood damage mapping. A preventive measure to minimize flood damage of properties, which regulates developing areas with high flooding potential, is highly recommended. Although this study suggested a number of policies for flood damage mitigation, they represent only a small number of possible policies useful for mitigating flood damage and other environmental problems. Based upon the results of this study, it may be concluded that satellite radar imagery has great potential in providing basic data for large-scale environmental problems such as flooding and oil spills. Nevertheless, further examinations should be conducted and the application of satellite radar imagery should be used to examine other environmental problems.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.427-435
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• 2000

It is often crucial to obtain a map of flood inundated area with more accurate and rapid manner. This study attempts to evaluate the potential of satellite synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data for mapping of flood inundated area in Imjin river basin. Multitemporal RADARSAT SAR data of three different dates were obtained at the time of flooding on August 4 and before and after the flooding. Once the data sets were geometrically corrected and preprocessed, the temporal characteristics of relative radar backscattering were analyzed. By comparing the radar backscattering of several surface features, it was clear that the flooded rice paddy showed the distinctive temporal pattern of radar response. Flooded rice paddy showed significantly lower radar signal while the normally growing rice paddy show high radar returns, which also could be easily interpreted from the color composite imagery. In addition to delineating the flooded rice fields, the multitemporal radar imagery also allow us to distinguish the afterward condition of once-flooded rice field.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 1999.11a
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• pp.479-484
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• 1999

Rice crop has relatively short growing season during the summer in Korea and, therefore, it is often difficult to acquire cloud-free imagery on time. This study was attempt to define the temporal characteristics of radar backscattering observed from satellite L-band SAR data on different growing stages of rice crop. Six scenes of multi-temporal JERS SAR data were obtained from the transplanting season to the harvesting month of October. Six layers of multi-temporal SAR data were registered on a common geographic coordinate system. Using topographic maps, field collected data, and Landsat TM data, several sample rice fields were delineated from the imagery and their relative radar backscatters were calculated by using a set of reference targets. The temporal pattern of radar backscattering was very distinctive by the growing stage of rice crop. It was also separable between two types of rice fields having different cultivation practices. Considering the temporal characteristics of radar backscattering observed from the study, it is obvious that a certain date of the growing season can be more effective to delineate the exact area of the cultivated rice crop field.

• Korean Journal of Geomatics
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.37-46
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• 2002

Accurate classification of water area is an preliminary step to accurately analyze the flooded area and damages caused by flood. This step is especially useful for monitoring the region where annually repeating flood is a problem. The accurate estimation of flooded area can ultimately be utilized as a primary source of information for the policy decision. Although SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) imagery with its own energy source is sensitive to the water area, its shadow effect similar to the reflectance signature of the water area should be carefully checked before accurate classification. Especially when we want to identify small flood area with mountainous environment, the step for removing shadow effect turns out to be essential in order to accurately classify the water area from the SAR imagery. In this paper, the flood area was classified and monitored using multi-temporal RADARSAT SAR images of Ok-Chun and Bo-Eun located in Chung-Book Province taken in 12th (during the flood) and 19th (after the flood) of August, 1998. We applied several steps of geometric and radiometric calculations to the SAR imagery. First we reduced the speckle noise of two SAR images and then calculated the radar backscattering coefficient $(\sigma^0)$. After that we performed the ortho-rectification via satellite orbit modeling developed in this study using the ephemeris information of the satellite images and ground control points. We also corrected radiometric distortion caused by the terrain relief. Finally, the water area was identified from two images and the flood area is calculated accordingly. The identified flood area is analyzed by overlapping with the existing land use map.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.25-40
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• 2006

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) from satellites provides the opportunity to regularly incorporate microwave information into forest classification. Radar backscatter can improve classification accuracy, and SAR interferometry could provide improved thematic information through the use of coherence. This research examined the potential of using multi-temporal JERS-l SAR (L band) backscatter information and interferometry in distinguishing forest classes of mountainous areas in the Northeastern U.S. for future forest mapping and monitoring. Raw image data from a pair of images were processed to produce coherence and backscatter data. To improve the geometric characteristics of both the coherence and the backscatter images, this study used the interferometric techniques. It was necessary to radiometrically correct radar backscatter to account for the effect of topography. This study developed a simplified method of radiometric correction for SAR imagery over the hilly terrain, and compared the forest-type discriminatory powers of the radar backscatter, the multi-temporal backscatter, the coherence, and the backscatter combined with the coherence. Statistical analysis showed that the method of radiometric correction has a substantial potential in separating forest types, and the coherence produced from an interferometric pair of images also showed a potential for distinguishing forest classes even though heavily forested conditions and long time separation of the images had limitations in the ability to get a high quality coherence. The method of combining the backscatter images from two different dates and the coherence in a multivariate approach in identifying forest types showed some potential. However, multi-temporal analysis of the backscatter was inconclusive because leaves were not the primary scatterers of a forest canopy at the L-band wavelengths. Further research in forest classification is suggested using diverse band width SAR imagery and fusing with other imagery source.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.155-168
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• 1996

Speckle noise has been a primary concern to many applications of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery. In recent years, several satellites with radar imaging systems were launched and the use of SAR data are expected to be increased rapidly The objectives of this study are to provide introductory understanding on radar speckle filtering and to compare the effects of several filtering methods that are relatively unknown to user community. Two study sites were extracted from the RADARSAT SAR data obtained over the suburban areas near Seoul. The study sites include relatively homogeneous cover types, such as reservoir, parking lot, rice pad, and deciduous forest. Five filters (mean filter, median filter, sigma filter, local statistics filter, and autocorrelation filter) were applied to the SAR imagery and their effects were evaluated from the aspects of both image smoothing and edge preservation. In overall, the evaluation results indicate that the local statistics filter and autocorrelation filter, that are based on a speckle model, are more effective to suppress speckle within homogeneous cover type while maintaining the edge sharpness between cover types.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.6_3
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• pp.1791-1799
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• 2023

The Korea Aerospace Research Institute is responsible for supplying and supporting the utilization of imagery data from the Arirang satellite series for organizations affiliated with the Government Satellite Information Application Consultation. Most of them primarily utilize optical imagery, and there is a relative lack of utilization of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery. In this paper, as part of supporting the use of SAR images, we investigated SAR intensity-based change detection algorithms and their use cases that have been researched to determine SAR intensity-based change detection algorithms to be developed in the future. As a result of the research, we found that various algorithms utilizing intensity difference, correlation coefficients, histograms, or polarimetric information have been researched by numerous researchers to detect and analyze change pixels and the applications of change detection algorithms have been studied in various fields such as a city, flood, forest fire, and vegetation. This study will serve as a reference for the development of SAR change detection algorithms, intended for utilization in the Government Satellite Information Application Consultation.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.14-19
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• 2013

Comparative evaluation of offshore wind retreival software, which use the satellite images taken by Synthetic Aperture Radar sensor; SARTools of CLS-SOPRONO, France and SpaceEye of London Research and Development Corporation, Canada is carried out. For a reference satellite image, ENVISAT ASAR imagery of Jeollanam-do Wan-do area when the winter-time northwestern wind prevails is processed by CMOD_IFR2, CMOD4, CMOD5 algorithms. Wind speed difference and its relative ratio are calculated to evaluate uncertainty of software selection.