• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.193-203
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• 2013

A GPS-drifter was newly designed to observe the sea surface skin current and to estimate the direct wind effect on the sea surface. After conducting a test to establish and verify the accuracy of the GPS itself in the laboratory, in-situ experimental campaigns at Saemangeum in Gunsan city and Haeundae in Busan city, Korea, were carried out to ascertain the drifter track and to estimate the velocity data set on Oct. 3, 15, 23, 27 and Nov. 25, 2011. The current meters, RCM9 and ADCP, were moored together to remove the background current field, and the wind data were obtained from several marine stations such as towers and buoys in these areas. The drifter-observed velocity show good agreement with the flow obtained by the HF radar in the Saemangeum area. The direction of the wind-driven current extracted from the drifter-observed velocity was completely deflected to the right, however the degree of the angle was different according to the drift types. The average speed of the wind-driven current matched with 2.19~2.81% of the wind speed and the deflection angle was about $8.0{\sim}10.9^{\circ}$ without adjustment for the land-sea effect, and about 2.19~2.84% and $4.1{\sim}6.0^{\circ}$ with the adjustment for the land-sea effect.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.663-675
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• 2011

Sea Surface Temperatures (SSTs) using the equations of NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) / NESDIS (National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service) were validated over the seas around Korea with satellite-tracked drifter data. A total 1,070 of matchups between satellite data and drifter data were acquired for the period of 2009. The mean rms errors of Multi- Channel SSTs (MCSSTs) and Non-Linear SSTs (NLSSTs) were evaluated to, in most of the cases, less than $1^{\circ}C$. However, the errors revealed dependencies on atmospheric and oceanic conditions. For the most part, SSTs were underestimated in winter and spring, whereas overestimated in summer. In addition to the seasonal characteristics, the errors also presented the effect of atmospheric moist that satellite SSTs were estimated considerably low ($-1.8^{\circ}C$) under extremely dry condition ($T_{11{\mu}m}-T_{12{\mu}m}$ < $0.3^{\circ}C$), whereas the tendency was reversed under moist condition. Wind forcings induced that SSTs tended to be higher for daytime data than in-situ measurements but lower for nighttime data, particularly in the range of low wind speeds. These characteristics imply that the validation of satellite SSTs should be continuously conducted for diverse regional applications.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.211-220
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• 2000

Even though recurring eddies at the terminal end of the East Korean Warm Current have been identified in the thermal infrared imagery from the NOAA/AVHRR sensor and ocean color data from Orbview-2/SeaWiFS sensor, it is difficult to make observation in the field regarding recurring eddies located around the Wonsan coastal area in North Korea. But we could get in situ data related to an eddy from an ARGOS satellite tracking drifter trapped in the eddy on January 4th, 1999. An ARGOS drifter, a NOAA satellite tracked buoy was trapped by the eddy during January 4th.March 18, 1999. The ARGOS drifter rotated 10 times per 72 days on the edge of the eddy located at $39^{\circ}N$, $129^{\circ}E$. The diameter of the eddy was about 100 km. The horizontal rotation velocity of the recurring cold-core anti-cyclonic eddy was 1.53 km/h(42 cm/sec). The sea surface temperatures of the eddy varied from $14.7^{\circ}C$ on January 5, 1999 to $9.6^{\circ}C$ on March 18,1999. To study the mechanism of the recurring eddy. we tried to find out the relationship between the vector of the drifter moving in the eddy and the wind vector in Sokcho and Ulleung Island located near the eddy in southern Korea, and the difference in sea level between Ulleung Island and Mukho. We hope the results of this study would be useful for calibration and validation data of simulation and numerical modeling studies of the recurring eddy.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.130-136
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• 2004

In September 2003 wind-measuring drifters were air-deployed in front of the projected path of Hurricane Fabian from an altitude between 300 m and 400 m. Eight drifters transmitted wind, air pressure and SST data through ARGOS and three drifters were within 35 km of the hurricane center. Measurements of the air pressure in the eye of the hurricane by dropsondes, suggested the air pressure at the eye was between 939 hPa and 944 hPa. The lowest pressure measured by a Minimet was 943 hPa at 33 km from the hurricane center. Fabian cooled the SST at its center from $28.9^{\circ}C$ to $26.8^{\circ}C$. After the passage of Fabian, SST warmed to between $27.5^{\circ}C$ and $28.5^{\circ}C$ in 7 days.

• Journal of the korean society of oceanography
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.60-67
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• 2003

Typhoon Rusa passed over the East China Sea and crossed over the Korea Peninsula on August 31, 2002. The core of the typhoon passed directly over a data buoy mooring site at ($127^{\circ}45'E,\;34^{\circ}25'\;N$) and several ARGOS-tracked drifters capable of measuring salinity. Peak hourly mean wind speed reached 28 m/s at the mooring site and wind pattern in the East China Sea changed from southerly wind to northwesterly wind after the typhoon passage. Two or three days before the typhoon tile drifter displacement changed significantly and the region-wide circulation pattern changed from a northeastward current to a westward current one week after the typhoon had passed. The surface water in the East China Sea was cooled to about $4^{\circ}C$ under the typhoon core and a general cooling occurred in most of the East China Sea with the exception of the Chinese coast. The salinity as observed by the drifters in the East China Sea increased about 2 psu but the near-shore water along the Korean coast observed by the mooring was freshened about 3 psu. The freshening of near-shore water was caused by an intrusion of off-shore water rather than local freshening by typhoon precipitation.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.243-252
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• 2016

In cases of water pollution accidents, accurate prediction for arrival time and concentration of contaminants in a river is essential to take proper measures and minimize their impact on downstream water intake facilities. It is critical to fully understand the behavior characteristics of contaminants on river surface, especially in case of oil spill accidents. Therefore, in this study, the effects of main parameters of advection and diffusion of contaminants were analyzed and validated by comparing the results of Lagrangian particle tracking (LPT) simulation of Environmental Fluid Dynamic Code (EFDC) model with those of Global Position System (GPS)-equipped drifter experiment. Prevention scenario modeling was accomplished by taking cases of movable weir operation into account. The simulated water level and flow velocity fluctuations agreed well with observations. There was no significant difference in the speed of surface particle movement between 5 and 10 layer modeling. Therefore, 5 layer modeling could be chosen to reduce computational time. It was found that full three dimensional modeling simulated wind effects on surface particle movements more sensitively than depth-averaged two dimensional modeling. The diffusion range of particles was linearly proportional to horizontal diffusivity by sensitivity analysis. Horizontal diffusivity estimated from the results of GPS-equipped drifter experiment was 0.096 m²/sec, which was considered to be valid for applying the LPT module in this area. Finally, the scenario analysis results showed that particle movements could be stagnant when discharge from the upstream weir was reduced, implying the possibility of securing time for mitigation actions such as oil boom installation and wiping oil contaminants. The outcomes of this study can help improve the prediction accuracy of particle tracking simulation to establish the most suitable mitigation plan considering the combination of movable weir operation.

• Ocean Science Journal
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.89-102
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• 2007

The surface circulation of northern South China Sea (hereafter SCS) for the period 1987-2005 was studied using the data of more than 500 satellite-tracked drifters and wind data from QuikSCAT. The mean flow directions in the northern SCS except the Luzon Strait (here after LS) during the periods October_March was southwestward, and $April{\sim}September$ northeastward. A strong northwestward intrusion of the Kuroshio through the LS appears during the $October{\sim}March$ period of northeasterly wind, but the intrusion became weak between April and September. When the strong intrusion occurred, the eddy kinetic energy (EKE) in the LS was $388cm^2/s^2$ which was almost 2 times higher than that during the weak-intrusion season. The volume transport of the Kuroshio in the east of the Philippines shows an inverse relationship to that of the LS. There is a six-month phase shift between the two seasonal phenomena. The volume transport in the east of the Philippines shows its peak sis-month earlier faster than that of the LS. The strong Kuroshio intrusion is found to be also related to the seasonal variation of the wind stress curl generated by the north easterly wind. The negative wind stress curl in the northern part of LS induces an anticyclonic flow, while the positive wind stress curl in the southern part of LS induces a cyclonic flow. The northwestward Kuroshio intrusion in the northern part of LS happened with larger negative wind stress curl, while the westward intrusion along $20.5^{\circ}N$ in the center of the LS occurred with weaker negative wind stress curl.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.11-18
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• 2022

In order to improve the accuracy of particle tracking prediction techniques near the Korean Strait, this study compared and analyzed a particle tracking model based on a seawater flow numerical model and a machine learning based on a particle tracking model using field observation data. The data used in the study were the surface drifter buoy movement trajectory data observed in the Korea Strait, prediction data by machine learning (linear regression, decision tree) using the tide and wind data from three observation stations (Gageo Island, Geoje Island, Gyoboncho), and prediciton data by numerical models (ROMS, MOHID). The above three data were compared through three error evaluation methods (Correlation Coefficient (CC), Root Mean Square Errors (RMSE), and Normalized Cumulative Lagrangian Separation (NCLS)). As a final result, the decision tree model had the best prediction accuracy in CC and RMSE, and the MOHID model had the best prediction results in NCLS.

• 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.