• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.263-266
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• 2002

Gravity waves have been searched for with a new all-sky camera system over Korean Peninsular. The all-sky camera consists of a 37mm/F4.5 Mamiya fisheye lens with a 180 dog field of view, interference filters and a 1024 by 1024 CCD camera. The all-sky camera has been tested near Daejeon city, and moved to Mt. Bohyun where the largest astronomical telescope is operated in Korea. A clear wave pattern was successfully detected in OH filter images over Mt. Bohyun on July 18, 2001, indicating that small scale coherent gravity waves perturbed OH airglow near the mesopause. Other wave features are since then observed with Na 589.8nm and OI 630.0nm filters. Since a Japanese all-sky camera network has already detected traveling ionospheric disturbances (TID) over the northeast-southwest range of Japanese islands, we hope our all-sky camera extends the coverage of the TID's observations to the west direction. We plan to operate our all-sky camera all year around to study seasonal variation of wave activities over the mid-latitude upper atmosphere.

• Bulletin of the Korean Space Science Society
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.33.1-33.1
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• 2008

As a part of the construction of Korean Space Weather Prediction Center (K-SWPC), Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) installed a Scintillation Monitor (SCINTMON) and an All-Sky Camera to observe upper atmospheric/ionospheric phenomena. The SCINTMON is installed in KASI building in Daejeon in cooperation with Cornell university and is monitoring the ionospheric scintillations on GPS L-band signals. All-Sky Camera is installed at Mt. Bohyun in Youngcheon in cooperation with Korea Polar Research Institute. It is used to take the photograph for upper atmospheric layer through appropriate filters with specific airglow or auroral emission wavelengths and to observe upper atmospheric disturbance, propagation of gravity wave and aurora. The integrated data from the instruments including SCINTMON and All-Sky Camera will be used for giving nowcast on the space weather and making confidential forecast based on some space weather prediction models.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.237-247
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• 2002

We report all sky camera and Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) observations of mesospheric gravity waves and a 12-hour wave at Resolute $(75^{\circ}N)$ and a joint observation of 10-hour wave with Eureka $(80^{\circ}N)$. All sky camera observations showed a low occurrence of mesosphere gravity waves during equinoxes, which is similar to the mid-latitude region. A slightly higher occurrence near solstice appears to indicate that gravity waves are not filtered out by the neutral wind in the winter. The FPI observation of a 12-hour wave showed amplitude variations from day to day. The phase of the wave is mostly stable and consistent with the GSWM prediction in the winter. The phase shifts with season as predicted by the GSWM. Four events of the 12-hour wave were found in spring with amplitudes larger than the GSW predictions. The FPls at Resolute and Eureka also observed a wave with period close to 10 hours. The 10-hour wave maybe the result of the non-linear interaction between the semi-diurnal tide and the quasi-two day wave. Further studies are under way. Overall, the combined Resolute and Eureka observation have revealed some new fractures about the mesospheric gravity wave, tidal wave, and other oscillations.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.203-215
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• 2021

The auroral observation has been started at Jang Bogo Station (JBS), Antarctica by using a visible All-sky camera (v-ASC) in 2018 to routinely monitor the aurora in association with the simultaneous observations of the ionosphere, thermosphere and magnetosphere at the station. In this article, the auroral observations are introduced with the analysis procedure to recognize the aurora from the v-ASC image data and to compute the auroral occurrences and the initial results on their spatial and temporal distributions are presented. The auroral occurrences are mostly confined to the northern horizon in the evening sector and extend to the zenith from the northwest to cover almost the entire sky disk over JBS at around 08 MLT (magnetic local time; 03 LT) and then retract to the northeast in the morning sector. At near the magnetic local noon, the occurrences are horizontally distributed in the northern sky disk, which shows the auroral occurrences in the cusp region. The results of the auroral occurrences indicate that JBS is located most of the time in the polar cap near the poleward boundary of the auroral oval in the nightside and approaches closer to the oval in the morning sector. At around 08 MLT (03 LT), JBS is located within the auroral oval and then moves away from it, finally being located in the cusp region at the magnetic local noon, which indicates that the location of JBS turns out to be ideal to investigate the variabilities of the poleward boundary of the auroral oval from long-term observations of the auroral occurrences. The future plan for the ground auroral observations near JBS is presented.

• Atmosphere
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2008

The cloud amount, one of the basic parameter in atmospheric observation, have been observed by naked eyes of observers, which is affected by the subjective view. In order to ensure reliable and objective observation, a new algorithm to retrieve cloud amount was constructed using true color images composed of red, green and blue (RGB). The true color image is obtained by the Skyview, an all-sky imager taking pictures of sky, at the Science Building of Yonsei University, Seoul for a year in 2006. The principle of distinguishing clear sky from cloudy sky lies in the fact that the spectral characteristics of light scattering is different for air molecules and cloud. The result of Skyview's algorithm showed about 77% agreement between the observed cloud amount and the calculated, for the error range, the difference between calculated and observed cloudiness, within ${\pm}2$. Seasonally, the best accuracy of about 83% was obtained within ${\pm}2$ range in summer when the cloud amounts are higher, thus better signal-to-noise ratio. Furthermore, as the sky turbidity increased, the error also increased because of increased scattering which can explain the large error in spring. The algorithm still need to be improved in classifying sky condition more systematically with other complimentary instruments to discriminate thin cloud from haze to reduce errors in detecting clouds.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.31-31
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• 2002

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.283-298
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• 2003

The 2001 Leonid meteor storm has been observed all over the world, and its most intense flux since the last few decades has caused great interest among both laymen and experts. Especially, its maximum hours occurred at dawn hours of Nov. 19 in the east Asia, during which moonless clear night at the Mt. Bohyun allowed us near perfect condition of observation. Observation was carried out in the period of 01:00∼05:40(KST), which include the predicted maximum hours, with all-sky camera installed for upper atmospheric airglow research. Tn this paper we analyze 68 all-sky images obtained in this period, which contain records of 172 meteors. Utilizing the zenith hourly rate(ZHR) of 3000 and magnitude distribution index of 2, which were reported to International Meteor Organization by visible observers in the east Asia, we estimate the limiting magnitude of about 3 for meteors detected in our all-sky images. We then derive magnitudes of 83 meteors with clear pixel brightness outlines among the initially detected 172 meteors by comparing with neighbor standard stars. Angular velocities of meteors needed for computing their passing times over an all-sky image are expressed with a simple formula of an angle between a meteor head and the Leonid radiant point. The derived magnitudes of 83 meteors are in the range of -6∼-1 magnitude, and its distribution shows a maximum new -3mag. The derived magnitudes are much smaller than the limiting magnitude inferred from the comparison with the result of naked-eye observations. The difference may be due to the characteristic difference between nearly instantaneuous naked-eye observations and CCD observations with a long exposure. We redetermine magnitudes of the meteors by adjusting a meteor lasting time to be consistent with the naked-eye observations. The relative distribution of the redetermined magnitudes, which has a maximum at 0 mag., resembles that of the magnitudes determined with the in-principle method. The relative distribution is quite different from ones that decrease monotonically with decreasing magnitudes for meteors(1∼6) sensitive to naked-eye observations. We conclude from the magnitude distribution of our all-sky observation that meteors brighter than about 0 mag., appeared more frequently during the 2001 Leonid maximum hours. The frequent appearance of bright meteors has significantly important implication for meteor research. We noted, however, considerably large uncertainties in magnitudes determined only by comparing standard stars due to the unknown lasting time of meteors and the non-linear sensitivity of all-sky camera.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.327-338
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• 2007

We estimate the momentum fluxes of short-period gravity waves which are observed in the OI 557.7 nm nightglow emission with all-sky camera at Mt. Bohyun ($36.2^{\circ}\;N,\;128.9^{\circ}\;E$) in Korea. The intrinsic phase speed ($C_{int}$), the intrinsic period (${\tau}_{int}$), and vertical wavelength (${\lambda}_z$) are also deduced from the horizontal wavelength (${\lambda}_h$), observed period (${\tau}_{ob}$), propagation direction (${\phi}_{ob}$), observe phase speed (${\upsilon}_{ob}$) of the gravity wave on the all-sky images. The neutral winds to deduce intrinsic wave parameters are measured with Fabry-Perot interferometer on Shigaraki ($34.8^{\circ}\;N,\;13.1^{\circ}\;E$) in Japan. We selected 5-nights of observations during the period between July 2002 and December 2006 considering of the weather and instrument conditions in two observation sites. The mean values of intrinsic parameter of gravity waves are $({\tau}_{int})\;=\;12.9\;{\pm}\;6.1\;m/s,\;({\lambda}_z)\;=\;12.9\;{\pm}\;6.5,\;and\;(C_{int})\;=\;40.6\;{\pm}\;11.6\;min$. The mean value of calculated momentum fluxes for four nights besides of ${\lambda}_z\;<\;6\;km$ is $12.0\;{\pm}\;15.2\;m^2/s^2$. It is needed the long-term coherent observation to obtain typical values of momentum fluxes of the mesospheric gravity waves using all-sky camera and the neutral wind measurements.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.111-120
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• 2024

Cloud coverage is a key factor in determining whether to proceed with observations. In the past, human judgment played an important role in weather evaluation for observations. However, the development of remote and robotic observation has diminished the role of human judgment. Moreover, it is not easy to evaluate weather conditions automatically because of the diverse cloud shapes and their rapid movement. In this paper, we present the development of a cloud monitoring program by applying a machine learning-based Python module "cloudynight" on all-sky camera images obtained at Miryang Arirang Astronomical Observatory (MAAO). The machine learning model was built by training 39,996 subregions divided from 1,212 images with altitude/azimuth angles and extracting 16 feature spaces. For our training model, the F1-score from the validation samples was 0.97, indicating good performance in identifying clouds in the all-sky image. As a result, this program calculates "Cloudiness" as the ratio of the number of total subregions to the number of subregions predicted to be covered by clouds. In the robotic observation, we set a policy that allows the telescope system to halt the observation when the "Cloudiness" exceeds 0.6 during the last 30 minutes. Following this policy, we found that there were no improper halts in the telescope system due to incorrect program decisions. We expect that robotic observation with the 0.7 m telescope at MAAO can be successfully operated using the cloud monitoring program.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.25-27
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• 2017

We are creating all-sky diffuse maps from the AKARI mid-infrared survey data with the two photometric bands centered at wavelengths of 9 and $18{\mu}m$. The AKARI mid-infrared diffuse maps achieve higher spatial resolution and higher sensitivity than the IRAS maps. In particular, the $9{\mu}m$ data are unique resources as an all-sky tracer of the emission of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). However, the original data suffer many artifacts. Thus, we have been developing correction methods. Among them, we have recently improved correction methods for the non-linearity and the reset anomaly of the detector response. These corrections successfully reduce the artifact level down to $0.1MJy\;sr^{-1}$ on average, which is essential for discussion on faint extended emission (e.g., the Galactic PAH emission). We have also made progress in the subtraction of the scattered light caused in the camera optics. We plan to release the improved diffuse maps to the public within a year.