• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.211-224
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• 2023

In this study, a soil moisture estimation was performed using the Water Cloud Model (WCM), a backscatter model that considers vegetation based on SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar). Sentinel-1 SAR and Sentinel-2 MSI (Multi-Spectral Instrument) images of a 40 × 50 km² area including the Yongdam Dam watershed of the Geum River were collected for this study. As vegetation descriptor of WCM, Sentinel-1 based vegetation index RVI (Radar Vegetation Index), depolarization ratio (DR), and Sentinel-2 based NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) were used, respectively. Forward modeling of WCM was performed by 3 groups, which were divided by the characteristics between backscattering coefficient and soil moisture. The clearer the linear relationship between soil moisture and the backscattering coefficient, the higher the simulation performance. To estimate the soil moisture, the simulated backscattering coefficient was inverted. The simulation performance was proportional to the forward modeling result. The WCM simulation error showed an increasing pattern from about -12dB based on the observed backscattering coefficient.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2022.05a
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• pp.28-28
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• 2022

본 연구는 용담댐유역을 포함한 금강 유역 상류 지역을 대상으로 Sentinel-1 SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) 위성영상을 기반으로 한 토양수분 산정을 목적으로 하였다. Sentinel-1 영상은 2019년에 대해 12일 간격으로 수집하였고, 영상의 전처리는 SNAP (SentiNel Application Platform)을 활용하여 기하 보정, 방사 보정 및 Speckle 보정을 수행하여 VH (Vertical transmit-Horizontal receive) 및 VV (Vertical transmit-Vertical receive) 편파 후방산란계수로 변환하였다. 토양수분 산정에는 Water Cloud Model (WCM)이 활용되었으며, 모형의 식생 서술자(Vegetation descriptor)는 RVI (Radar Vegetation Index)와 NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index)를 활용하였다. RVI는 Sentinel-1 영상의 VH 및 VV 편파자료를 이용해 산정하였으며, NDVI는 동기간에 대해 10일 간격으로 수집된 Sentinel-2 MSI (MultiSpectral Instrument) 위성영상을 활용하여 산정하였다. WCM의 검정 및 보정은 한국수자원공사에서 제공하는 10 cm 깊이의 TDR (Time Domain Reflectometry) 센서에서 실측된 6개 지점의 토양수분 자료를 수집하여 수행하였으며, 매개변수의 최적화는 비선형 최소제곱(Non-linear least square) 및 PSO (Particle Swarm Optimization) 알고리즘을 활용하였다. WCM을 통해 산정된 토양수분은 피어슨 상관계수(Pearson's correlation coefficient)와 평균제곱근오차(Root mean square error)를 활용하여 검증을 수행할 예정이다.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.27 no.7
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• pp.660-663
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• 2016

This paper presents the effect of vegetation layer and radar parameters on soil moisture measurement using the vegetation layer scattering model and surface scattering model. The database of backscattering coefficients for various vegetation layer densities, incidence angles, frequencies, and polarizations is generated using $1^{st}$-order RTM(Radiative Transfer Model). Then, surface soil moisture contents were estimated from the backscattering coefficients in the database using the WCM(Water Cloud Model) and Oh model. The retrieved soil moisture contents were compared with the soil moisture contents in the input parameters of the RTM to estimate the retrieval errors. The effects of vegetation layer and radar parameters on soil moisture measurement are analyzed using the retrieval errors.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.81-91
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• 2021

Synthetic Apreture Radar (SAR) is attracting attentions with its possibility of producing high resolution data that can be used for soil moisture estimation. High resolution soil moisture data enables more specific observation of soil moisture than existing soil moisture products from other satellites. It can also be used for studies of wildfire, landslide, and flood. The SAR based soil moisture estimation should be conducted considering vegetation, which affects backscattering signals from the SAR sensor. In this study, a SAR based soil moisture estimation at regions covered with various vegetation types on the middle area of Korea (Cropland, Grassland, Forest) is conducted. The representative backscattering model, Water Cloud Model (WCM) is used for soil moisture estimation over vegetated areas. Radar Vegetation Index (RVI) and in-situ soil moisture data are used as input factors for the model. Total 6 study areas are selected for 3 vegetation types according to land cover classification with 2 sites per each vegetation type. Soil moisture evaluation result shows that the accuracy of each site stands out in the order of grassland, forest, and cropland. Forested area shows correlation coefficient value higher than 0.5 even with the most dense vegetation, while cropland shows correlation coefficient value lower than 0.3. The proper vegetation and soil moisture conditions for SAR based soil moisture estimation are suggested through the results of the study. Future study, which utilizes additional ancillary vegetation data (vegetation height, vegetation type) is thought to be necessary.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.53 no.11
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• pp.973-983
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• 2020

Recently, SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) is being highlighted as a solution to the coarse spatial resolution of remote sensing data in water resources research field. Spatial resolution up to 10 m of SAR backscattering coefficient has facilitated more elaborate analyses of the spatial distribution of soil moisture, compared to existing satellite-based coarse resolution (>10 km) soil moisture data. It is essential, however, to multilaterally analyze how various hydrological and environmental factors affect the backscattering coefficient, to utilize the data. In this study, soil moisture estimated by WCM (Water Cloud Model) and linear regression is compared with in-situ soil moisture data at 5 soil moisture observatories in the Korean peninsula. WCM shows suitable estimates for observing instant changes in soil moisture. However, it needs to be adjusted in terms of errors. Soil moisture estimated from linear regression shows a stable error range, but it cannot capture instant changes. The result also shows that the effect of soil moisture on backscattering coefficients differs greatly by land cover, distribution of vegetation, and water content of vegetation, hence that there're still limitations to apply preexisting models directly. Therefore, it is crucial to analyze variable effects from different environments and establish suitable soil moisture model, to apply SAR to water resources fields in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.6_1
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• pp.1185-1193
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• 2023

The increasing interest in soil moisture data from satellite imagery for applications in hydrology, meteorology, and agriculture has led to the development of methods to produce variable-resolution soil moisture maps. Research on accurate soil moisture estimation using satellite imagery is essential for remote sensing applications. The purpose of this study is to generate a soil moisture estimation map for a test area using KOMPSAT-3/3A and KOMPSAT-5 SAR imagery and to quantitatively compare the results with soil moisture data from the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission provided by NASA, with a focus on accuracy validation. In addition, the Korean Environmental Geographic Information Service (EGIS) land cover map was used to determine soil moisture, especially in agricultural and forested regions. The selected test area for this study is the western part of Jeju, South Korea, where input data were available for the soil moisture estimation algorithm based on the Water Cloud Model (WCM). Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery from KOMPSAT-5 HV and Sentinel-1 VV were used for soil moisture estimation, while vegetation indices were calculated from the surface reflectance of KOMPSAT-3 imagery. Comparison of the derived soil moisture results with SMAP (L-3) and SMAP (L-4) data by differencing showed a mean difference of 4.13±3.60 p% and 14.24±2.10 p%, respectively, indicating a level of agreement. This research suggests the potential for producing highly accurate and precise soil moisture maps using future South Korean satellite imagery and publicly available data sources, as demonstrated in this study.