• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.47-60
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• 2017

The permafrost active layer plays an important role in permafrost dynamics. Ecological patterns, processes, and water and ice contents in the active layer are spatially and temporally complex depending on landscape heterogeneity and local-scale variations in hydrological processes. Although there has been emerging interest in the application of optical remote sensing techniques to permafrost environments, optical sensors are significantly limited in accessing information on near surface geo-cryological conditions. The primary objective of this study was to investigate capability of L-band SAR data for monitoring spatio-temporal variability of permafrost ecosystems and underlying soil conditions. This study exploits information from different polarimetric SAR observables in relation to permafrost environmental conditions. Experimental results show that each polarimetric radar observable conveys different information on permafrost environments. In the case of the dual-pol mode, the radar observables consist of two backscattering powers and one correlation coefficient between polarimetric channels. Among them, the dual-pol scattering powers are highly sensitive to freeze/thaw transition and can discriminate grasslands or ponds in thermokarst area from other permafrost ecosystems. However, it is difficult to identify the ground conditions with dual-pol observables. Additional backscattering powers and correlation coefficients obtained from quad-pol mode help understanding seasonal variations ofradar scattering and assessing geo-cryological information on soil layers. In particular, co-pol coherences atHV-basis and circular-basis were found to be very usefultools for mapping and monitoring near surface soil properties.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.201-214
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• 2020

This study proposes a bias correction method of dual-pol radar rain rate in real time using the dual Kalman filter. Unlike the conventional Kalman filter, the dual Kalman filter predicts state variables with two systems (state estimation system and model estimation system) at the same time. Bias of rain rate is corrected by applying the bias correction ratio to the rain rate estimate. The bias correction ratio is predicted from the state-space model of the dual Kalman filter. This method is applied to a storm event with long duration occurred in July 2016. Most of the bias correction ratios are estimated between 1 and 2, which indicates that the radar rain rate is underestimated than the ground rain rate. The AR (1) model is found to be appropriate for explaining the time series of the bias correction ratio. The time series of the bias correction ratio predicted by the dual Kalman filter shows a similar tendency to that of observation data. As the variability of the bias correction increases, the dual Kalman filter has better prediction performance than the Kalman filter. This study shows that the dual Kalman filter can be applied to the bias correction of radar rain rate, especially for long and heavy storm events.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.49 no.7
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• pp.625-634
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• 2016

Three leading agencies under different ministries - Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) in the ministry of Environment, Han river control office in the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) and Weather Group of ROK Air Force in the Ministry of National Defense (MND) - have been operated radars in the purpose of observing weather, hydrology and military operational weather in Korea. Eight S-band dual-pol. radars have been newly installed or replaced by these ministries over different places by 2015. However each ministry has different aims of operating radars, observation strategies, data processing algorithms, etc. Due to the differences, there is a wide level of accuracy on observed radar data as well as the composite images made of the cross governmental radar measurement. Gaining fairly high level of accuracy on radar data obtained by different agencies has been shared as a great concern by the ministries. Thus, "an agreement of harmonizing weather and hydrological radar products" was made by the three ministries in 2010. Particularly, this is very important to produce better rainfall estimation using the cross governmental radar measurement. Weather Radar Center(WRC) in KMA has been developed an empirical method using measurements observed by Yongin testbed radar. This study is aiming to examine the efficiency of the empirical method to improve the accuracies of radar rainfalls estimated from cross governmental dual-pol. radar measurements. As a result, the radar rainfalls of three radars (Baengnyeongdo, Biseulsan, and, Sobaeksan Radar) were shown improvement in accuracy (1-NE) up to 70% using data from May to October in 2015. Also, the range of the accuracies in radar rainfall estimation, which were from 30% to 60% before adjusting polarimetric variables, were decreased from 65% to 70% after adjusting polarimetric variables.

• Journal of electromagnetic engineering and science
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.117-128
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• 2018

In this paper, compact linear dual polarized series-fed $1{\times}2$ linear and $2{\times}2$ planar arrays antennas for airborne SAR applications are proposed. The proposed antenna design consists of a square radiating patch that is placed on top of the substrate, a quarter wave transformer and $50-{\Omega}$ matched transformer. Matching between a radiating patch and the $50-{\Omega}$ microstrip line is accomplished through a direct coupled-feed technique with the help of an impedance inverter (${\lambda}/4$ impedance transformer) placed at both horizontal and vertical planes, in the case of the $2{\times}2$ planar array. The overall size for the prototype-1 and prototype-2 fabricated antennas are $1.9305{\times}0.9652{\times}0.05106{{\lambda}_0}^3$ and $1.9305{\times}1.9305{\times}0.05106{{\lambda}_0}^3$, respectively. The fabricated structure has been tested, and the experimental results are similar to the simulated ones. The CST MWS simulated and vector network analyzer measured reflection coefficient ($S_{11}$) results were compared, and they indicate that the proposed antenna prototype-1 yields the impedance bandwidth >140 MHz (9.56-9.72 GHz) defined by $S_{11}$<-10 dB with 1.43%, and $S_{21}$<-25 dB in the case of prototype-2 (9.58-9.74 GHz, $S_{11}$< -10 dB) >140 MHz for all the individual ports. The surface currents and the E- and H-field distributions were studied for a better understanding of the polarization mechanism. The measured results of the proposed dual polarized antenna were in accordance with the simulated analysis and showed good performance of the S-parameters and radiation patterns (co-pol and cross-pol), gain, efficiency, front-to-back ratio, half-power beam width) at the resonant frequency. With these features and its compact size, the proposed antenna will be suitable for X-band airborne synthetic aperture radar applications.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2015.05a
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• pp.28-28
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• 2015

본 연구는 KICT X밴드 이중편파 레이더 관측자료를 이용하여, 우리나라 기상조건에서 X밴드 이중편파 레이더 $K_{DP}$ 추정 기법에 따른 강우강도 추정의 차이를 비교 검토하였다. 이중편파 레이더로 $K_{DP}$ 기반의 정확도 높은 강우강도 분포 추정에 있어, $K_{DP}$ 추정의 방법에 따라서 추정된 $K_{DP}$의 공간 분포는 상당한 차이를 보이게 된다. 추정 기법만을 볼 때, 이는 주로 ${\Phi}_{DP}$로부터 기울기를 산정하는 방법과 기울기를 산정하는 윈도우의 크기에서 차이가 발생한다. 윈도우의 크기는 일반적으로 호우의 강도에 따라 달리 적용하는 것이 $R-K_{DP}$ 관계에서 보다 정확도가 높은 것으로 알려져 있다. $K_{DP}$ 산정 기법에 따른 차이 검토를 위해 기울기 산정 기법, 필터(FIR) 상수 및 ${\Phi}_{DP}$ 기울기 산정을 위한 윈도우 크기에 따른 강수 추정의 정확도를 검토하였다.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.55 no.9
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• pp.679-686
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• 2022

As the occurrences of flash floods have increased due to climate change, faster and more accurate precipitation observation using X-band radar has become important. Therefore, the Ministry of Environment installed two dual-pol X-band radars at Samcheok and Uljin. The radar data used in this study were obtained from two different elevation angles and composed to reduce the shielding effect. To obtain quantitative rainfall, quality control (QC), K_DP retrieval, and Hybrid Surface Rainfall (HSR) methods were sequentially applied. To improve the accuracy of the quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE) of the X-band radar, we retrieved parameters for the relationship between rainfall rate and specific differential phase, which is commonly called the R-K_DP relationship; hence, an empirical approach was developed using multiple rain gauges for those two radars. The newly suggested relationship, R = 27.4K^0.81_DP, slightly increased the correlation coefficient by 1% more than the relationship suggested by the previous study. The root mean square error significantly decreased from 3.88 mm/hr to 3.68 mm/hr, and the bias of the estimated precipitation also decreased from -1.72 mm/hr to -0.92 mm/hr for overall cases, showing the improvement of the new method.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.383-389
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• 2009

The main objective of the research is a feasibility study on the intertidal zone using a X-band radar satellite, TerraSAR-X. The TerraSAR-X data have been acquired in the west coast of Korea where large tidal flats, Ganghwa and Yeongjong tidal flats, are developed. Investigations include: 1) waterline and backscattering characteristics of the high resolution X-band images in tidal flats; 2) polarimetric signature of halophytes (or salt marsh plants), specifically Suaeda japonica; and 3) phase and coherence of interferometric pairs. Waterlines from TerraSAR-X data satisfy the requirement of horizontal accuracy of 60 m that corresponds to 20 cm in average height difference while current other spaceborne SAR systems could not meet the requirement. HH-polarization was the best for extraction of waterline, and its geometric position is reliable due to the short wavelength and accurate orbit control of the TerraSAR-X. A halophyte or salt marsh plant, Suaeda japonica, is an indicator of local sea level change. From X-band ground radar measurements, a dual polarization of VV/VH-pol. is anticipated to be the best for detection of the plant with about 9 dB difference at 35 degree incidence angle. However, TerraSAR-X HH/TV dual polarization was turned to be more effective for salt marsh monitoring. The HH-HV value was the maximum of about 7.9 dB at 31.6 degree incidence angle, which is fairly consistent with the results of X-band ground radar measurement. The boundary of salt marsh is effectively traceable specifically by TerraSAR-X cross-polarization data. While interferometric phase is not coherent within normal tidal flat, areas of salt marsh where the landization is preceded show coherent interferometric phases regardless of seasons or tide conditions. Although TerraSAR-X interferometry may not be effective to directly measure height or changes in tidal flat surface, TanDEM-X or other future X-band SAR tandem missions within one-day interval would be useful for mapping tidal flat topography.