Satellite Ocean Research Articles

A Preliminary Study of the Calibration for the Rotating Fan-Beam Scatterometer on CFOSAT

The first rotating fan-beam scatterometer (RFSCAT) will be launched onboard the Chinese-French Oceanic Satellite (CFOSAT) in 2018. It provides a set of radar cross-section (σ <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0</sup> ) measurements at different azimuth/incidence angles over a wind vector cell (WVC), in order to determine the near-surface wind field using the backscatter model, i.e., the so-called geophysical model function (GMF). The accuracy of the retrieved wind vector is a sensitive function of the radiometric accuracy of the σ <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0</sup> measurements. Therefore, in-flight calibration, including the loop-back (internal) calibration and the external calibration performed with natural extended-area targets, is studied in this paper. Several homogeneous areas over land are first analyzed to check the stability and azimuthal dependence of the σ <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0</sup> over these areas. A new calibration mask of the homogeneous land areas is generated and will be used by RFSCAT calibration. Then a simple method of external calibration is proposed to eliminate the azimuthal-dependent σ <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0</sup> errors induced by the insertion loss of the rotating joint, which can be applied to both the rotating pencil-beam scatterometers and the coming RFSCAT. The “observed” σ <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0</sup> of RFSCAT is simulated using the SeasatA scatterometer (SASS) measurements and the “perturbed” azimuthal-dependent σ <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0</sup> errors. The latter is then tracked by the proposed external calibration. The results show that the accuracy of gain corrections is up to 0.2 dB, ensuring consistency between different azimuthal measurements.

Spatio-temporal visualization of air–sea CO2 flux and carbon budget using volume rendering

This paper presents a novel visualization method to show the spatio-temporal dynamics of carbon sinks and sources, and carbon fluxes in the ocean carbon cycle. The air–sea carbon budget and its process of accumulation are demonstrated in the spatial dimension, while the distribution pattern and variation of CO2 flux are expressed by color changes. In this way, we unite spatial and temporal characteristics of satellite data through visualization. A GPU-based direct volume rendering technique using half-angle slicing is adopted to dynamically visualize the released or absorbed CO2 gas with shadow effects. A data model is designed to generate four-dimensional (4D) data from satellite-derived air–sea CO2 flux products, and an out-of-core scheduling strategy is also proposed for on-the-fly rendering of time series of satellite data. The presented 4D visualization method is implemented on graphics cards with vertex, geometry and fragment shaders. It provides a visually realistic simulation and user interaction for real-time rendering. This approach has been integrated into the Information System of Ocean Satellite Monitoring for Air–sea CO2 Flux (IssCO2) for the research and assessment of air–sea CO2 flux in the China Seas.

Offshore Wind Resources Assessment from Multiple Satellite Data and WRF Modeling over South China Sea

Using accurate inputs of wind speed is crucial in wind resource assessment, as predicted power is proportional to the wind speed cubed. This study outlines a methodology for combining multiple ocean satellite winds and winds from WRF simulations in order to acquire the accurate reconstructed offshore winds which can be used for offshore wind resource assessment. First, wind speeds retrieved from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and Scatterometer ASCAT images were validated against in situ measurements from seven coastal meteorological stations in South China Sea (SCS). The wind roses from the Navy Operational Global Atmospheric Prediction System (NOGAPS) and ASCAT agree well with these observations from the corresponding in situ measurements. The statistical results comparing in situ wind speed and SAR-based (ASCAT-based) wind speed for the whole co-located samples show a standard deviation (SD) of 2.09 m/s (1.83 m/s) and correlation coefficient of R 0.75 (0.80). When the offshore winds (i.e., winds directed from land to sea) are excluded, the comparison results for wind speeds show an improvement of SD and R, indicating that the satellite data are more credible over the open ocean. Meanwhile, the validation of satellite winds against the same co-located mast observations shows a satisfactory level of accuracy which was similar for SAR and ASCAT winds. These satellite winds are then assimilated into the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model by WRF Data Assimilation (WRFDA) system. Finally, the wind resource statistics at 100 m height based on the reconstructed winds have been achieved over the study area, which fully combines the offshore wind information from multiple satellite data and numerical model. The findings presented here may be useful in future wind resource assessment based on satellite data.

Evaluation of remotely sensed actual evapotranspiration products from COMS and MODIS at two different flux tower sites in Korea

Estimating the evapotranspiration (ET) is a requirement for water resource management and agricultural productions to understand the interaction between the land surface and the atmosphere. Most remote-sensing-based ET is estimated from polar orbiting satellites having low frequencies of observation. However, observing the continuous spatio-temporal variation of ET from a geostationary satellite to determine water management usage is essential. In this study, we utilized the revised remote-sensing-based Penman–Monteith (revised RS-PM) model to estimate ET in three different timescales (instantaneous, daily, and monthly). The data from a polar orbiting satellite, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and a geostationary satellite, the Communication, Ocean, and Meteorological Satellite (COMS), were collected from April to December 2011 to force the revised RS-PM model. The estimated ET from COMS and MODIS was compared with measured ET obtained from two different flux tower sites having different land surface characteristics in Korea, i.e. Sulma (SMC) with mixed forest and Cheongmi (CFC) with rice paddy as dominant vegetation. Compared with flux tower measurements, the estimated ET on instantaneous and daily timescales from both satellites was highly overestimated at SMC when compared with the flux tower ET (Bias of 41.19–145.10 W m−2 and RMSE of 69.61–188.78 W m−2), while estimated ET results were slightly better at the CFC site (Bias of –27.28–13.24 W m−2 and RMSE of 45.19–71.82 W m−2, respectively). These errors in results were primarily caused due to the overestimated leaf area index that was obtained from satellite products. Nevertheless, the satellite-based ET indicated reasonable agreement with flux tower ET. Monthly average ET from both satellites showed nearly similar patterns during the entire study periods, except for the summer season. The difference between COMS and MODIS estimations during the summer season was mainly propagated due to the difference in the number of acquired satellite images. This study showed that the higher frequency of COMS than MODIS observations makes it more ideal to continuously monitor ET as a geostationary satellite with high spatio-temporal coverage of a geostationary satellite.

몬테카를로방법을 이용한 천리안위성 궤도전이 소요추진제량 추정에 관한 연구

Geostationary satellites use the thruster in order to control the location change and mount the suitable amount of liquid propellant depending on the operating lifetime. Therefore the lifetime of the geostationary satellite depends on the residual propellant amount and the precise residual propellant gauging is very important for the mitigation of economic losses arised from premature removal of satellite from its orbit, satellites replacement planning, slot management and so on. The propellant gauging methods of geostationary satellite are mostly used PVT method, thermal mass method and bookkeeping method. In this paper, we analysis the modeling of COMS(Communication, Ocean & Meteorological Satellite) bipropellant system for bookkeeping method and COMS GTO(Geostationary Transfer Orbit) injection propellant estimation using Monte-Carlo method.

On the Use of Threshold for the Ground Validation of Satellite Rain Rate

Ground-truthing is a major problem in the satellite estimation of rain rate. This problem is that the measurement taken by the satellite sensor is fundamentally different from the one it is compared with on the ground. Additionally, since the satellite has the limited capability to measure the light rain rate exactly, the comparison should also consider the threshold value of satellite rain rate. This paper proposes a ground-truth design with threshold for the satellite rain rate. This ground-truth design is the generalization of the conventional ground-truth design which considered the only (zero, nonzero) and (nonzero, nonzero) measurement pairs. The mean-square error is used as an index of accuracy in estimating the ground measurement by satellite measurement. An application to the artificial random field shows that the proposed ground-truth design with threshold is valid as the design bias is zero. The same result is also derived in the application to the COMS (Communication, Ocean, and Meteorological Satellite) rain rate data in Korea.

Recent trends in the Southern Ocean eddy field

AbstractEddies in the Southern Ocean act to moderate the response of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) to changes in forcing. An updated analysis of the Southern Ocean satellite altimetry record indicates an increase in eddy kinetic energy (EKE) in recent decades, contemporaneous with a probable decrease in ACC transport. The EKE trend is largest in the Pacific (14.9 ± 4.1 cm2 s−2 per decade) and Indian (18.3 ± 5.1 cm2 s−2 per decade) sectors of the Southern Ocean. We test the hypothesis that variations in wind stress can account for the observed EKE trends using perturbation experiments conducted with idealized high‐resolution ocean models. The decadal increase in EKE is most likely due to continuing increases in the wind stress over the Southern Ocean, albeit with considerable interannual variability superposed. ACC transport correlates well with wind stress on these interannual time scales, but is weakly affected by wind forcing at longer periods. The increasing intensity of the Southern Ocean eddy field has implications for overturning circulation, carbon cycling, and climate.

Calibration and Estimation of Attitude Errors for a Rotating Fan-Beam Scatterometer Using Calibration Ground Stations

The rotating fan-beam scatterometer (RFSCAT) onboard Chinese-French Oceanic SATellite (CFOSAT) due to launch in 2018 is a new type of radar scatterometer system for ocean surface wind vector measurement. It can give observations with more azimuth and incidence angles for a single wind vector cell (WVC) than other available scatterometers. This has been proved effective in bettering the retrieved wind quality by the simulation approach. However, its innovative observing geometry is challenging for the coming in-orbit external calibration. In this paper, CFOSAT attitude errors are estimated, and its antenna gain pattern is monitored and verified based on the external calibration strategy of a Ku-band scatterometer employing calibration ground stations (CGSs). The effects of satellite attitude errors on the measurements are also analyzed, together with simulation results for the external calibration. It is shown that a gain pattern with accuracy of 0.08 dB and attitude errors within 0.025° are achieved.

Correction: “Going with the Flow” or Not: Evidence of Positive Rheotaxis in Oceanic Juvenile Loggerhead Turtles (Caretta caretta) in the South Pacific Ocean Using Satellite Tags and Ocean Circulation Data

Correction: “Going with the Flow” or Not: Evidence of Positive Rheotaxis in Oceanic Juvenile Loggerhead Turtles (Caretta caretta) in the South Pacific Ocean Using Satellite Tags and Ocean Circulation Data

현장관측용 분광 광도계의 상대 검교정 시스템 개발

천리안해양관측위성(Geostationary Ocean Color Imager, GOCI)이 2010년 6월에 발사된 이후, 영상 자료의 보정과 검증을 위한 여러 차례의 현장 관측이 한반도 주변에서 수행되었다. 한국해양과학기술원 해양위성센터(Korea Ocean Satellite Center, KOSC)에서는 Analytical Spectral Devices (ASD)사의 분광 광도계 FieldSpec3나 TriOS사의 분광 광도계 RAMSES와 같은 현장관측장비의 특성 변화를 확인하기 위하여 미국국립표준기술원(National Institute of Standards and Technology, NIST)의 표준화 절차를 거친 광원과 표준 분광 광도계를 이용하여 각각의 현장 관측 마다 기기의 성능을 측정하였다. 본 논문에서는 해양위성센터에 구축된 광학 실험실과 현장관측 분광 광도계의 상대적 복사 검교정 방법에 대해서 소개하고 있다. 광학 실험실은 98% 이상의 광원 균질성을 지니는 20인치 적분구(USS-2000S, LabSphere)와 360 nm 부터 1100 nm 까지 1.6 nm 파장 간격으로 측정이 가능한 표준 분광 광도계(MCPD9800, Photal), 그리고 <TEX>${\pm}0.1mm$</TEX>의 편평도를 가지는 광학테이블(<TEX>$3600{\times}1500{\times}800mm^3$</TEX>)을 기본으로 구성되어 있다. 실험실 내부는 정확한 검교정 실험을 위하여 일정한 온습도를 유지하고 있으며, 동일한 광원에 동일한 위치에서 표준과 현장관측용 분광 광도계를 동시에 측정하는 방법을 기본으로 한다. 해양위성센터가 보유하고 있는 ASD 를 측정한 결과, 현장관측용 분광광도계의 결과가 푸른 가시광 영역에서 미세한 차이가 측정 시 마다 나타나는 것을 확인하였고, 더불어 1년간의 상대 검교정 실험에 따르면 평균적으로 4.41% 정도의 파장별 광특성이 변화하는 것을 확인하였다. 이러한 결과는 측정 정확도를 유지하고, GOCI 자료의 신뢰도를 확보하기 위하여 지속적인 검교정 실험을 수행해야 하는 이유를 보여주고 있다. After launching the Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI) on June 2010, field campaigns were performed routinely around Korean peninsula to collect in-situ data for calibration and validation. Key measurements in the campaigns are radiometric ones with field radiometers such as Analytical Spectral Devices FieldSpec3 or TriOS RAMSES. The field radiometers must be regularly calibrated. We, in the paper, introduce the optical laboratory built in KOSC and the relative calibration method for in-situ measurement spectroradiometer. The laboratory is equipped with a 20-inch integrating sphere (USS-2000S, LabSphere) in 98% uniformity, a reference spectrometer (MCPD9800, Photal) covering wavelengths from 360 nm to 1100 nm with 1.6 nm spectral resolution, and an optical table (<TEX>$3600{\times}1500{\times}800mm^3$</TEX>) having a flatness of <TEX>${\pm}0.1mm$</TEX>. Under constant temperature and humidity maintainance in the room, the reference spectrometer and the in-situ measurement instrument are checked with the same light source in the same distance. From the test of FieldSpec3, we figured out a slight difference among in-situ instruments in blue band range, and also confirmed the sensor spectral performance was changed about 4.41% during 1 year. These results show that the regular calibrations are needed to maintain the field measurement accuracy and thus GOCI data reliability.

An analytic algorithm for global coverage of the revisiting orbit and its application to the CFOSAT satellite

This paper addresses a new analytic algorithm for global coverage of the revisiting orbit and its application to the mission revisiting the Earth within long periods of time, such as Chinese-French Oceanic Satellite (abbr., CFOSAT). In the first, it is presented that the traditional design methodology of the revisiting orbit for some imaging satellites only on the single (ascending or descending) pass, and the repeating orbit is employed to perform the global coverage within short periods of time. However, the selection of the repeating orbit is essentially to yield the suboptimum from the rare measure of rational numbers of passes per day, which will lose lots of available revisiting orbits. Thus, an innovative design scheme is proposed to check both rational and irrational passes per day to acquire the relationship between the coverage percentage and the altitude. To improve the traditional imaging only on the single pass, the proposed algorithm is mapping every pass into its ascending and descending nodes on the specified latitude circle, and then is accumulating the projected width on the circle by the field of view of the satellite. The ergodic geometry of coverage percentage produced from the algorithm is affecting the final scheme, such as the optimal one owning the largest percentage, and the balance one possessing the less gradient in its vicinity, and is guiding to heuristic design for the station-keeping control strategies. The application of CFOSAT validates the feasibility of the algorithm.

A high resolution hindcast of the meteorological sea level component for Southern Europe: the GOS dataset

Two sets of 62-year (1948–2009) and 21-year (1989–2009) high-resolution hindcasts of the meteorological sea level component have been developed for Southern Europe using the Regional Ocean Model System (ROMS) of Rutgers University. These new databases, named GOS 1.1 and GOS 2.1, are a valuable tool for a wide variety of studies, such as those related to a better understanding of sea level variability, flooding risk and coastal engineering studies. The model domain encloses Southern Europe, including the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic coast, with a horizontal resolution of 1/8° (~14 km). In order to study the effect of the atmospheric forcing resolution, ROMS is driven with two different regional atmospheric forcings: SeaWind I (30 km of horizontal resolution) and SeaWind II (15 km of horizontal resolution). Both are the result of a dynamical downscaling from global atmospheric reanalysis: NCEP global reanalysis and ERA-Interim global reanalysis, respectively. As a result, two surge data sets are obtained: GOS 1.1 (forced with SeaWind I) and GOS 2.1 (forced with SeaWind II). Surge elevations calculated by ROMS are compared with in situ measurements from tide gauges in coastal areas and with open ocean satellite observations. The validation procedure, testing outcomes from GOS 1.1 and GOS 2.1 against observations, shows the capability of the model to simulate accurately the sea level variation induced by the meteorological forcing. A description of the surge in terms of seasonality and long term trends is also made. The climate variability analysis reveals clear seasonal patterns in the Mediterranean Sea basins. A long-term negative trend for the period 1948–2009 is found, whilst positive trends are computed for the last 20 years (GOS 2.1).

Detecting wildfires with the Korean geostationary meteorological satellite

Satellite remote sensing is a useful tool for monitoring wildfire by analysing the brightness temperature of medium and thermal infrared bands. This letter described a wildfire detection algorithm developed for the COMS (communication, ocean and meteorological satellite) and evaluated the applicability of the proposed method by comparing the detection results with the KFS (Korea Forest Service) wildfire survey data and ASTER (advanced spaceborne thermal emission and reflection radiometer) image. We detected various size of wildfires occurred in South Korea on 9 March 2013, which is a remarkable outcome when considering the limited channels of the COMS. For a more reliable algorithm, the characterization of subpixel fires using Dozier’s method or the multiple endmember spectral mixture analysis will be necessary as future work. In addition, more wildfire cases should be experimented for statistical assessment of the accuracy.

The EUMETSAT OSI SAF near 50 GHz sea ice emissivity model

ABSTRACTA sea ice thermal microwave emission model for 50 GHz was developed under EUMETSAT's Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility (OSI SAF) programme. The model is based on correlations between the surface brightness temperature at 18, 36 and 50 GHz. The model coefficients are estimated using simulated data from a combined thermodynamic and emission model. The intention with the model is to provide a first guess sea ice surface emissivity estimate for atmospheric temperature sounding applications in the troposphere in numerical weather prediction (NWP) models assimilating Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU) and Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS) data. The spectral gradient ratio is defined as the difference over the sum of the SSMIS brightness temperatures at 18 and 36 GHz vertical linear polarisation (GR1836). The GR1836 is related to the emissivity at the atmospheric temperature sounding channels at around 50 GHz. Furthermore, the brightness temperatures and the polarisation ratio (PR) at the neighbouring 18, 36 and 50 GHz channels are highly correlated. Both the gradient ratio at 18 and 36 GHz and the PR at 36 GHz measured by SSMIS are input into the model predicting the 50 GHz emissivity for horizontal and vertical linear polarisations and incidence angles between 0° and 60° The simulated emissivity is compared to the emissivity derived with alternative methods. The fit to real AMSU observations is investigated using the different emissivity estimates for simulating the observations with atmospheric data from a regional weather prediction model.

Variation in ocean colour may help predict cod and haddock recruitment

MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 491:187-197 (2013) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps10451 Variation in ocean colour may help predict cod and haddock recruitment M. Kurtis Trzcinski1,*, Emmanuel Devred2, Trevor Platt3, Shubha Sathyendranath3 1Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia B2Y 4A2, Canada 2Université Laval, Quebec City, Quebec G1V 0A6, Canada 3Plymouth Marine Laboratory, The Hoe, Plymouth PL1 3DH, UK *Email: kurtis.trzcinski@dfo-mpo.gc.ca ABSTRACT: Characteristics of the spring and fall phytoplankton blooms in spawning areas on the Scotian Shelf, Canada, were estimated from remote sensing data. These blooms, along with anomalies in the North Atlantic Oscillation, were used to explain variation in the recruitment of 4 populations of cod and haddock. We tested the effects of the timing of the bloom using the chlorophyll a (chl a) signal, the maximum amount of chl a, the timing of the diatom bloom, and the maximum relative dominance of diatoms on the recruitment (to Age 1) of cod and haddock on the Scotian Shelf. Models were run separately for the effects of the spring and fall blooms. Only 3 of 10 models tested (0-lag) explained significant (80 to 92%) variation in recruitment. However, the performance of these models was not consistent across populations or species, suggesting that generalities about how spring and fall phytoplankton blooms affect recruitment cannot yet be made. The differences among models suggest that fish larvae are probably adapted locally to food production and thus indirectly to the characteristics of the phytoplankton bloom, which in turn are influenced by regional (meso-scale) oceanographic conditions. KEY WORDS: Recruitment· Phytoplankton bloom · Diatom bloom · Ocean satellite imagery · NAO · Cod · Gadus morhua · Haddock · Melanogrammus aeglefinus Full text in pdf format PreviousNextCite this article as: Trzcinski MK, Devred E, Platt T, Sathyendranath S (2013) Variation in ocean colour may help predict cod and haddock recruitment. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 491:187-197. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps10451 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 491. Online publication date: October 02, 2013 Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599 Copyright © 2013 Inter-Research.

Comparison of modelling ANN and ELM to estimate solar radiation over Turkey using NOAA satellite data

In this study, solar radiation (SR) is estimated at 61 locations with varying climatic conditions using the artificial neural network (ANN) and extreme learning machine (ELM). While the ANN and ELM methods are trained with data for the years 2002 and 2003, the accuracy of these methods was tested with data for 2004. The values for month, altitude, latitude, longitude, and land-surface temperature (LST) obtained from the data of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (NOAA-AVHRR) satellite are chosen as input in developing the ANN and ELM models. SR is found to be the output in modelling of the methods. Results are then compared with meteorological values by statistical methods. Using ANN, the determination coefficient (R2), mean bias error (MBE), root mean square error (RMSE), and Willmott’s index (WI) values were calculated as 0.943, −0.148 MJ m−2, 1.604 MJ m−2, and 0.996, respectively. While R2 was 0.961, MBE, RMSE, and WI were found to be in the order 0.045 MJ m−2, 0.672 MJ m−2, and 0.997 by ELM. As can be understood from the statistics, ELM is clearly more successful than ANN in SR estimation.

Evaluation of Land Surface Temperature Operationally Retrieved from Korean Geostationary Satellite (COMS) Data

We evaluated the precision of land surface temperature (LST) operationally retrieved from the Korean multipurpose geostationary satellite, Communication, Ocean and Meteorological Satellite (COMS). The split-window (SW)-type retrieval algorithm was developed through radiative transfer model simulations under various atmospheric profiles, satellite zenith angles, surface emissivity values and surface lapse rate conditions using Moderate Resolution Atmospheric Transmission version 4 (MODTRAN4). The estimation capabilities of the COMS SW (CSW) LST algorithm were evaluated for various impacting factors, and the retrieval accuracy of COMS LST data was evaluated with collocated Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) LST data. The surface emissivity values for two SW channels were generated using a vegetation cover method. The CSW algorithm estimated the LST distribution reasonably well (averaged bias = 0.00 K, Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) = 1.41 K, correlation coefficient = 0.99); however, the estimation capabilities of the CSW algorithm were significantly impacted by large brightness temperature differences and surface lapse rates. The CSW algorithm reproduced spatiotemporal variations of LST comparing well to MODIS LST data, irrespective of what month or time of day the data were collected from. The one-year evaluation results with MODIS LST data showed that the annual mean bias, RMSE and correlation coefficient for the CSW algorithm were −1.009 K, 2.613 K and 0.988, respectively.

Effect of Different MODIS Emissivity Products on Land-Surface Temperature Retrieval From GOES Series

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service is developing an operational land-surface temperature (LST) product from the U.S. Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) series 13, 14, and 15, which makes use of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) monthly emissivity. However, there is a latency problem since the MODIS monthly emissivity data are available at least a month late. In this study, we investigated using alternative emissivity data sets, including the ten-year monthly average emissivity, the last month emissivity, and the same month emissivity in the last year. We also tested current monthly emissivity and current weekly emissivity for comparison and evaluation. The study area is in the continental United States (25°N-50°N and 125°W-65°W), and the temporal frame is April, July, October, and December, which represents the four seasons in a year. Based on the modified dual-window algorithm, LST is derived and validated against the SURFace RADiation (SURFRAD) budget network ground observations. The results show that the ten-year monthly average emissivity performs best by retrieving stable and accurate LST.

A Framework for Ocean Satellite Image Classification Based on Ontologies

In this paper we present a framework for ocean image classification based on ontologies. With this aim, we will describe how low and high level content of ocean satellite images can be modeled with an ontology. In addition, we will show how the image classification can be modeled with the ontology in which decision tree based classifiers and rule-based expert systems are represented. Particularly, the rule based expert systems include rules about low-level features (called training and labeling rules), and rules defined from the labeling (called human expert rules). The modeling with the ontology provides an extensible framework in which accommodate several methods of image classification. One of the main aims of our proposal is to provide a mechanism to share data about image classification between applications. We have developed an extensible Protégé plugin to classify images.

VHF 대양 네트워크를 위한 Ad-hoc 기반 다중접속기법

In oceanic flight routes, HF radio and satellite data links have weather restrictions, long propagation delay and low data throughput. In this paper, we propose oceanic aeronautical communications scheme in the VHF band based on ad-hoc communication. The proposed scheme organizes autonomously a multi-hop network that is divided into multiple local network using aircraft to fly long-distance communication and supports a hybrid type of multiple access, which consists of random access and TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) scheme. In addition, several algorithms to apply spatial reuse of transmission to multi-hop long range communication environments have been proposed. The proposed system proves performance improvement on delay time as an effective solution to communicate end-to-end on the oceanic flight routes and strengthens the reliability of oceanic aeronautical communication.