Evaluation of Sea fog Detection Accuracy Based on Geostationary Satellite Image Using Machine Learning

A sea fog is a fog caused by the cooling of the air near the ocean-atmosphere boundary layer when the warm sea surface air moves to a cold sea level. Sea fog affects a variety of aspects, including maritime and coastal transportation, military activities and fishing activities. In particular, it is important to detect sea fog as they can lead to ship accidents due to reduced visibility. Due to the wide range of sea fog events and the lack of constant occurrence, it is generally detected through satellite remote sensing. Because sea fog travels in a short period of time, it uses geostationary satellites with higher time resolution than polar satellites to detect fog. A method for detecting fog by using the difference between 11 μm channel and 3.7 μm channel was widely used when detecting fog by satellite remote sensing, but this is difficult to distinguish between lower clouds and fog. Traditional algorithms are difficult to find accurate thresholds for fog and cloud. However, machine learning algorithms can be used as a useful tool to determine this. In this study, based on geostationary satellite imaging data, a comparative analysis of sea fog detection accuracy was conducted through various methods of machine learning, such as Random Forest, Multi-Layer Perceptron, and Convolutional Neural Networks.