• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.36 no.5_3
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• pp.1095-1107
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• 2020

Flood monitoring using satellite data has been constrained by obtaining satellite images for flood peak and accurately extracting flooded areas from satellite data. Deep learning is a promising method for satellite image classification, yet the potential of deep learning-based flooded area extraction using SAR data remained uncertain, which has advantages in obtaining data, comparing to optical satellite data. This research explores the performance of SegNet and U-Net on image segmentation by extracting flooded areas in the Khorat basin, Mekong river basin, and Cagayan river basin in Thailand, Laos, and the Philippines from Sentinel-1 A/B satellite data. Results show that Global Accuracy, Mean IoU, and Mean BF Score of SegNet are 0.9847, 0.6016, and 0.6467 respectively, whereas those of U-Net are 0.9937, 0.7022, 0.7125. Visual interpretation shows that the classification accuracy of U-Net is higher than SegNet, but overall processing time of SegNet is around three times faster than that of U-Net. It is anticipated that the results of this research could be used when developing deep learning-based flood monitoring models and presenting fully automated flooded area extraction models.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.502-517
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• 2019

Global warming and rapid climate change have long affected the characteristics of typhoons in the Northwest Pacific, which has induced increasing devastating disasters along the coastal regions of the Korean peninsula. Synthetic Aperature Radar (SAR), as one of the microwave sensors, makes it possible to produce high-resolution sea surface wind field around the typhoon under cloudy atmospheric conditions, which has been impossible to obtain the winds from satellite optical and infrared sensors. The Geophysical Model Functions (GMFs) for sea surface wind retrieval from SAR data requires the input of wind direction, which should be based on the accurate estimation of the center of the typhoon. This study estimated the typhoon centers using Sentinel-1A images to improve the problem of typhoon center detection method and to reflect it in retrieving the sea surface wind. The results were validated by comparing with the typhoon best track data provided by the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) and Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), and also by using infrared images of Himawari-8 satellite. The initial center position of the typhoon was determined by using VH polarization, thereby reducing the possibility of error. The detected center showed a difference of 23.76 km on average with the best track data of the four typhoons provided by the KMA and JMA. Compared to the typhoon center estimated by Himawari-8 satellite, the results showed an average spatial variation of 11.80 km except one typhoon located near land with a large difference of 58.73 km. This result suggests that high-resolution SAR images can be used to estimate the center and retrieve sea surface wind around typhoons.

• Annals of Surgical Treatment and Research
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• v.95 no.5
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• pp.286-296
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• 2018

Purpose: Sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy (SLNB) is widely accepted for staging of melanoma patients. It has been shown that clinico-pathological features such as Breslow thickness, ulceration, age, and sex are better predictors of relapse and survival than SLN status alone. The aims of this study were to evaluate the long-term (10-year) prognostic impact of SLNB and to determine predictive factors associated with SLN metastasis, relapse, and melanoma specific mortality (MSM). Methods: This was a prospective observational study on 289 consecutive patients with primary cutaneous melanoma who underwent SLNB from January 2000 to December 2007, and followed until January 2014, at an Italian academic hospital. Results: SLN was positive in 64 patients (22.1%). The median follow-up was 116 months (79-147 months). Tenyear disease-free survival and melanoma specific survival were poor in patients with positive SLN (58.7% and 66.4%, respectively). Only the increasing Breslow thickness resulted independently associated to an increased risk of SLN metastasis. Cox regression analysis showed that a Breslow thickness >2 mm was an independent predictor of relapse, and male sex and Breslow thickness >2 mm was a predictor of MSM. At 10 years, SLN metastasis was not significantly associated to either relapse or MSM. Conclusion: After the fifth year of follow-up, SLN metastasis is not an independent predictive factor of relapse or mortality which are mainly influenced by the characteristics of the primary tumor and of the patient. Patients with a Breslow thickness >2 mm regardless of the SLN status should be considered at high risk for 10-year relapse and mortality.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.34 no.6_1
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• pp.1119-1130
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• 2018

Soyang Lake has been contributing to economic growth by preventing flood damage in the metropolitan area, the water level in the middle to upper flow of lake has been greatly decreased due to the drought in 2015. In order to restore the existing flow rate, Bupyungbo has been built in Bupyeong-ri, Shin Nam-myeon, Inje-gun to cause artificial changes on the sedimentary environment of Bupyeong freshwater region. Therefore, this study intends to confirm the changes of sedimentary environment since Bupyeongbo has been utilized. For this study, we used the Sentinel-2 satellite image data periodically to measure the dimension of water according to the volume of water kept near Bupyung district and analyzed the particle size and the percentage of water content of the sediments through field study. The Sentnel-2 satellite images showed us how the water surface has been changed and that during the period from September 2017 to October 2018, the minimum and maximum area of water surface was observed in June 2018 and in January 2018, respectively. In addition, we find that the smaller being the particle size, the higher having the water content and that there is higher the correlation between the water content and the grain size of the sediment layer. Hereafter, if we will acquire the drone images at Bupyung district, we expect that we will be able to measure the distribution of sediments in the same area according to different time periods and observe various kinds of sediment through field work.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.158-174
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• 2018

The leaf area index (LAI) is a major factor explaining the photosynthesis of vegetation, evapotranspiration, and energy exchange between the earth surface and atmosphere, and there have been studies on accurate and applicable LAI estimation methods. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the actual LAI data, UAV image-based vegetation index, canopy height and satellite image (Sentinel-2) LAI and to present an effective LAI estimation method using UAV. As a result, among the six vegetation indices in this study, NDRE ($R^2=0.496$) and CIRE ($R^2=0.443$), which contained red-edge band, showed a high correlation. The application of the canopy height model data to the vegetation index improved the explanatory power of the LAI. In addition, in the case of NDVI, the saturation problem caused by the linear relationship with LAI was addressed. In this study, it was possible to estimate high resolution LAI using UAV images. It is expected that the applicability of such data will be improved if calibration and correction steps are carried out for various vegetation and seasonal images.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.343-346
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• 2019

This letter describes a development of satellite-based forest withering index for detection of fire burn area and its application to the Goseong-Sokcho and Gangneung-Donghae wildfires in April 4, 2019. Withered forest has very different spectral characteristics from healthy forest. In particular, a false color composite of R-NIR-G represents such difference very clearly. Using Sentinel-2 images with the forest withering index, we derived the area burned by the wildfires: approximately 701.16 ha for Goseong-Sokcho and approximately 710.60 ha for Gangneung-Donghae, although official record will be announced by the Korean government later.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.493-502
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• 2021

Recently, because of changes in temperature and rising water temperatures due to increased pollution sources, many algae have been produced in the water system. Therefore, there has been a lot of research using satellite images for the generation and monitoring of green algae. However, in prior studies, it is difficult to consider the optical properties of the local water system by using only a single index, and by using medium and low-resolution satellite images to conduct large-scale algae detection, there is a problem of accuracy in narrow, broad rivers. Therefore, in this work, we utilize high-resolution images of Sentinel-2 satellites to perform green algae detection on a single index (NDVI, SEI, FGAI) and development index (NDVI & SEI, FGAI & SEI) that mixes single indices. In this study, POD, FAR, and PC values were utilized to evaluate the accuracy of green algae detection algorithms, and the FGAI & SEI index showed the highest accuracy with 98.29% overall accuracy PC.

• 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.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.38 no.6_1
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• pp.1343-1356
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• 2022

Clouds or shadows are the most problematic when monitoring crops using optical satellite images. To reduce this effect, a composite algorithm was used to select the maximum Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) for a certain period. This Maximum NDVI Composite (MNC) method reduces the influence of clouds, but since only the maximum NDVI value is used for a certain period, it is difficult to show the phenomenon immediately when the NDVI decreases. As a way to maintain the spectral information of crop as much as possible while minimizing the influence of clouds, a Score-Based Composite (SBC) algorithm was proposed, which is a method of selecting the most suitable pixels by defining various environmental factors and assigning scores to them when compositing. In this study, the Sentinel-2A/B Level 2A reflectance image and cloud, shadow, Aerosol Optical Thickness(AOT), obtainging date, sensor zenith angle provided as additional information were used for the SBC algorithm. As a result of applying the SBC algorithm with a 15-day and a monthly period for Dangjin rice fields and Taebaek highland cabbage fields in 2021, the 15-day period composited data showed faster detailed changes in NDVI than the monthly composited results, except for the rainy season affected by clouds. In certain images, a spatially heterogeneous part is seen due to partial date-by-date differences in the composited NDVI image, which is considered to be due to the inaccuracy of the cloud and shadow information used. In the future, we plan to improve the accuracy of input information and perform quantitative comparison with MNC-based composite algorithm.