[Short News] Recent Awards and Achievements at UNISTUNIST News Center

The Intelligent Remote sensing and geospatial Information Science (IRIS) lab, under the leadership of Professor Jungho Im from the Department of Urban and Environmental Engineering at UNIST, has recently announced that three of its researchers have been honored for their scientific achievements at domestic AI competitions focused on weather and climate research. The award recipients are Dr. Dongjin Cho (Encouragement Award), DukWon Bae (Encouragement Award), and YeJin Kim (NIER Presidential Award).

■ Monitoring of Land Surface Temperature with AI … 2023 NIMS R&D Assessment Award Winners

Dr. Dongjin Cho and DukWon Bae from the IRIS lab were honored with the Encouragement Award at the R&D Performance Assessment, conducted by the National Institute of Meteorological Sciences (NIMS), held in Busan in April 2023.

Dr. Cho was acknowledged for his outstanding research on enhancing the precision of Korea’s summer temperature prediction models using image-based deep learning techniques to predict the next day’s highest temperatures with greater accuracy.

In the photo are Dr. Cho Dong-jin (second from left) and Bae Deok-won (second from right), along with their fellow researchers YeonSu Lee (left) and SiWoo Lee (right), who played an indispensable role in conducting the study together.

DukWon Bae, a doctoral researcher from the IRIS lab, has been awarded for his exceptional research on estimating surface temperatures under clouds using data obtained from the GK2A satellite. The existing satellite temperature outputs were unable to provide values for cloud areas; however, Bae employed machine learning techniques to calculate surface temperatures in these regions. As a result, he obtained high-resolution hourly estimates of the Korean Peninsula’s surface temperature.

Regarding this achievement, Bae expressed his happiness by stating that “I am delighted that our research conducted under the heat wave special weather center project has received recognition through this competition.” Furthermore, he added that “We will continue conducting good studies building upon this experience as a stepping stone.”

■ AI to Estimate Ozone Concentrations … 2023 KOSAE Conference for Future Vision and Student Colloquium

YeJin Kim, a student pursuing an integrated master’s and doctoral degree program, was awarded with the NIED Presidential Award at the 2023 KOSAE Conference for Future Vision and Student Colloquium, organized by the Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment (KOSAE) in commemoration of its 40th anniversary on May 11, 2023.

The award recognized Kim’s outstanding contribution for proposing a plan to estimate surface ozone concentrations in East Asia every hour using satellite data (Himawari-8) through machine learning technology. This approach offers several advantages, including real-time monitoring of ozone concentration levels with spatial continuity regardless of cloud cover.

Regarding this achievement, Kim stated that “As ozone has emerged as a serious air pollutant due to climate change, accurate real-time monitoring is necessary,” further adding that “We will continue our research efforts towards estimating air pollutants responsible for climate change using satellite data and machine learning.”