• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.533-545
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• 2015

Spatial and seasonal variations in hydrogeochemical characteristics and the factors affecting the deterioration in quality of shallow portable groundwater in an agricultural area are examined. The aquifer consists of (from the surface to depth) agricultural soil, weathered soil, weathered rock, and bedrock. The geochemical signatures of the shallow groundwater are mostly affected by the NO₃⁻ and Cl⁻ contaminants that show a gradual downward increase in concentration from the upper area, due to the irregular distribution of contamination sources. The concentrations of the major cations do not varied with the elapsed time and the NO₃⁻ and Cl⁻ ions, when compared with concentrations in background groundwater, increase gradually with the distance from the upper area. This result suggests that the water quality in shallow groundwater deteriorates due to contaminant sources at the surface. The contaminations of the major contaminants in groundwater show a positive linear relationship with electrical conductivity, indicating the deterioration in water quality is related to the effects of the contaminants. The relationships between contaminant concentrations, as inferred from the ternary plots, show the contaminant concentrations in organic fertilizer are positively related to concentrations of NO₃⁻, Cl⁻, and SO₄²⁻ ions in the shallow portable groundwaters, which means the fertilizer is the main contaminant source. The results also show that the deterioration in shallow groundwater quality is caused mainly by NO₃⁻ and Cl⁻ derived from organic fertilizer with additional SO₄²⁻ contaminant from livestock wastes. Even though the concentrations of the contaminants within the shallow groundwaters and the contaminant sources are largely variable, it is useful to consider the ratio of contaminant concentrations and the relationship between contaminants in groundwater samples and in the contaminant source when analyzing deterioration in water quality.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.323-334
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• 2007

We analyzed the ocean environmental data from water sample and automatic measurement instruments with the Incheon-Jeju passenger ship for 18 times during 4 years from 2001 to 2004. The objectives of this study are to monitor the spatial and temporal variations of ocean environmental parameters in coastal waters of the Yellow Sea using water sample analysis, and to compare and analyze the reliability of automatic measurement sensors for chlorophyll and turbidity using in situ measurements. The chlorophyll concentration showed the ranges between 0.1 to $6.0mg/m^3$. High concentrations occurred in the Gyeonggi Bay through all the cruises. The maximum value of chlorophyll concentration was $16.5mg/m^3$ in this area during September 2004. The absorption coefficients of dissolve organic matter at 400 nm showed below $0.5m^{-1}$ except those in August 2001 During 2002-2003, it did not distinctly change the seasonal variations with the ranges 0.1 to $0.4m^{-1}$. In the case of suspended sediment (SS) concentration, most of the area showed below $20g/m^3$ through all seasons except the Gyeonggi Bay and around Mokpo area. In general SS concentration of autumn and winter season was higher than that of summer. The central area of the Yellow Sea appeared to have lower value $10g/m^3$. The YSI fluorometer for chlorophyll concentration had a very low reliability and turbidity sensor had a $R^2$ value of 0.77 through the 4 times measurements comparing with water sampling method. For the automatic measurement using instruments for chlorphlyll and suspended sediment concentration, McVan and Choses sensor was greater than YSI multisensor. The SeaWiFS SS distribution map was well spatially matched with in situ measurement, however, there was a little difference in quantitative concentration.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.77-89
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• 2004

The spatial and temporal variations of aerosol optical depth (AOD) over Northeast Asia regions have special importance in the aerosol research for estimation of aerosol radiative forcing parameters and climate change. Aerosol optical and physical properties (AOD and ${\AA}$ngstrom parameter) have been investigated by using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) Aerosol Index (AI) to estimate aerosol characteristics over the study region during 2001. Additionally, aerosol characteristics over the Korean peninsular during Aerosol Characteristic Experiment in Asia (ACE-Asia) Intensive Observation Period (IOP) have been investigated by using satellite observations. The results showed that the daily-observed aerosol data indicate seasonal variations with relatively higher aerosol loading in the spring and very low during the winter. The typical Asian dust case showed higher AOD (>0.7) with lower Angstrom exponent (<0.5) and higher AI (>0.5) that is mainly due to the composition of coarse particles in the springtime. Mean AOD for 2001 at 4 different places showed 0.65$\pm$0.37 at Beijing, 0.31$\pm$0.19 at Gosan, 0.54$\pm$0.26 at Seoul, and 0.38$\pm$0.19 at Kwangju, respectively. An interesting result was found in the present study that polluted aerosol events with small size dominated-aerosol loading around the Korean peninsular are sometimes observed. The origin of these polluted aerosols was thought to East China. Aerosol distribution from satellite images and trajectory results shows the proof of aerosol transport. Therefore, aerosol monitoring using satellite data is very useful.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.99-110
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• 2022

We investigated physicochemical properties and isotopic compositions of organic matter (δ¹³C_TOC and δ ¹⁵N_TN) in the old fish farming (OFF) site after the cessation of aquaculture farming. Based on this approach, our objective is to determine the organic matter origin and their relative contributions preserved at sediments of fish farming. Temporal and spatial distribution of particulate and sinking organic matter(OFF sites: 2.0 to 3.3 mg L^-1 for particulate matter concentration, 18.8 to 246.6 g m^-2 day^-1 for sinking organic matter rate, control sites: 2.0 to 3.5 mg L^-1 for particulate matter concentration, 25.5 to 129.4 g m^-2 day^-1 for sinking organic matter rate) between both sites showed significant difference along seasonal precipitations. In contrast to variations of δ¹³C_TOC and δ¹⁵N_TN values at water columns, these isotopic compositions (OFF sites: -21.5‰ to -20.4‰ for δ¹³ C_TOC, 6.0‰ to 7.6‰ for δ¹⁵N_TN, control sites: -21.6‰ to -21.0‰ for δ¹³C_TOC, 6.6‰ to 8.0‰ for δ¹⁵N_TN) investigated at sediments have distinctive isotopic patterns(p<0.05) for seawater-derived nitrogen sources, indicating the increased input of aquaculture-derived sources (e.g., fish fecal). With respect to past fish farming activities, representative sources(e.g., fish fecal and algae) between both sites showed significant difference (p<0.05), confirming predominant contribution (55.9±4.6%) of fish fecal within OFF sites. Thus, our results may determine specific controlling factor for sustainable use of fish farming sites by estimating the discriminative contributions of organic matter between both sites.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.13-35
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• 2023

Ocean currents play the most important role in causing and controlling global climate change. The water depth of the Yellow Sea is very shallow compared to the East Sea, and the circulation and currents of seawater are quite complicated owing to the influence of various wind fields, ocean currents, and river discharge with low-salinity seawater. The Yellow Sea Warm Current (YSWC) is one of the most representative currents of the Yellow Sea in winter and is closely related to the weather of the southwest coast of the Korean Peninsula, so it needs to be treated as important in secondary-school textbooks. Based on the 2015 revised national educational curriculum, secondary-school science and earth science textbooks were analyzed for content related to the YSWC. In addition, a questionnaire survey of secondary-school science teachers was conducted to investigate their perceptions of the temporal variability of ocean currents. Most teachers appeared to have the incorrect knowledge that the YSWC moves north all year round to the west coast of the Korean Peninsula and is strong in the summer like a general warm current. The YSWC does not have strong seasonal variability in current strength, unlike the North Korean Cold Current (NKCC), but does not exist all year round and appears only in winter. These errors in teachers' subject knowledge had a background similar to why they had a misconception that the NKCC was strong in winter. Therefore, errors in textbook contents on the YSWC were analyzed and presented. In addition, to develop students' and teachers' data literacy, class materials on the YSWC that can be used in inquiry activities were developed. A graphical user interface (GUI) program that can visualize the sea surface temperature of the Yellow Sea was introduced, and a program displaying the spatial distribution of water temperature and salinity was developed using World Ocean Atlas (WOA) 2018 oceanic in-situ measurements of water temperature and salinity data and ocean numerical model reanalysis field data. This data visualization materials using oceanic data is expected to improve teachers' misunderstandings and serve as an opportunity to cultivate both students and teachers' ocean and data literacy.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.6_1
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• pp.1211-1224
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• 2023

Clouds cause many difficult problems in observing land surface phenomena using optical satellites, such as national land observation, disaster response, and change detection. In addition, the presence of clouds affects not only the image processing stage but also the final data quality, so it is necessary to identify and remove them. Therefore, in this study, we developed a new cloud detection technique that automatically performs a series of processes to search and extract the pixels closest to the spectral pattern of clouds in satellite images, select the optimal threshold, and produce a cloud mask based on the threshold. The cloud detection technique largely consists of three steps. In the first step, the process of converting the Digital Number (DN) unit image into top-of-atmosphere reflectance units was performed. In the second step, preprocessing such as Hue-Value-Saturation (HSV) transformation, triangle thresholding, and maximum likelihood classification was applied using the top of the atmosphere reflectance image, and the threshold for generating the initial cloud mask was determined for each image. In the third post-processing step, the noise included in the initial cloud mask created was removed and the cloud boundaries and interior were improved. As experimental data for cloud detection, CAS500-1 L2G images acquired in the Korean Peninsula from April to November, which show the diversity of spatial and seasonal distribution of clouds, were used. To verify the performance of the proposed method, the results generated by a simple thresholding method were compared. As a result of the experiment, compared to the existing method, the proposed method was able to detect clouds more accurately by considering the radiometric characteristics of each image through the preprocessing process. In addition, the results showed that the influence of bright objects (panel roofs, concrete roads, sand, etc.) other than cloud objects was minimized. The proposed method showed more than 30% improved results(F1-score) compared to the existing method but showed limitations in certain images containing snow.