• Bulletin of the Korean Space Science Society
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• 2011.04a
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• pp.27.2-27.2
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• 2011

The Total Electron Content (TEC) measured from Global Positioning System (GPS) can be continuously or peculiarly increased (positive ionospheric storm) or decreased (negative ionospheric storm) with solar and geomagnetic activities as well as the chemical and dynamic processes with thermosphere in the mid-latitudes. The ionospheric storm is not easy to predict owing to its difficult mechanism, and the real-time GPS TEC monitoring may be useful to follow ionospheric response to solar and geomagnetic storms. Korea Astronomy & Space Science Institute has continuously monitor GPS TEC over Korea Peninsula in near real-time of 10 minutes to watch activities. In this presentation, we will report the variation of GPS TEC over Daejeon and JeJu in Korea during the period of solar flare eruption and geomagnetic storm events in 2011. These events in 2011 will be compared with the event in October 2003 and November 2004.

• Journal of Positioning, Navigation, and Timing
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.269-275
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• 2024

On May 11, 2024, there was a strong solar flare explosion. A powerful geomagnetic storm triggered by a solar flare caused a major ionospheric disturbance over the Korean Peninsula. When a geomagnetic storm occurred, an abnormal change in vertical total electron content (VTEC) values was detected at all Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) stations in the Korean Peninsula. In addition, we performed GNSS precise point positioning (PPP) processing using observations from the SBAO and MKPO stations. We found that the up-directional position error increased significantly in both stations at around 17:00 UT on the day of year (DOY) 132, 2024. At that point, the root mean square (RMS) values for all position errors (East, North, and Up) increased compared to other dates. Due to very high noise, the L1 signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) values of QZSS pseudo-random noise (PRN) 07 dropped to about 25 dB. As a result, we suggest that the strong geomagnetic storm increased the GNSS PPP position errors in the Korean Peninsula.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.29-39
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• 2017

We investigate two abnormal CME-Storm pairs that occurred on 2014 September 10 - 12 and 2015 March 15 - 17, respectively. The first one was a moderate geomagnetic storm ($Dst_{min}{\sim}-75nT$) driven by the X1.6 high speed flare-associated CME ($1267km\;s^{-1}$) in AR 12158 (N14E02) near solar disk center. The other was a very intense geomagnetic storm ($Dst_{min}{\sim}-223nT$) caused by a CME with moderate speed ($719km\;s^{-1}$) and associated with a filament eruption accompanied by a weak flare (C9.1) in AR 12297 (S17W38). Both CMEs have large direction parameters facing the Earth and southward magnetic field orientation in their solar source region. In this study, we inspect the structure of Interplanetary Flux Ropes (IFRs) at the Earth estimated by using the torus fitting technique assuming self-similar expansion. As results, we find that the moderate storm on 2014 September 12 was caused by small-scale southward magnetic fields in the sheath region ahead of the IFR. The Earth traversed the portion of the IFR where only the northward fields are observed. Meanwhile, in case of the 2015 March 17 storm, our IFR analysis revealed that the Earth passed the very portion where only the southward magnetic fields are observed throughout the passage. The resultant southward magnetic field with long-duration is the main cause of the intense storm. We suggest that 3D magnetic field geometry of an IFR at the IFR-Earth encounter is important and the strength of a geomagnetic storm is strongly affected by the relative location of the Earth with respect to the IFR structure.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.33-33
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• 2013

We are developing empirical space weather (solar flare, solar proton event, and geomagnetic storm) forecast models based on solar data. In this talk we will review our main results and recent progress. First, we have examined solar flare (R) occurrence probability depending on sunspot McIntosh classification, its area, and its area change. We find that sunspot area and its increase (a proxy of flux emergence) greatly enhance solar flare occurrence rates for several sunspot classes. Second, a solar proton event (S) forecast model depending on flare parameters (flare strength, duration, and longitude) as well as CME parameters (speed and angular width) has been developed. We find that solar proton event probability strongly depends on these parameters and CME speed is well correlated with solar proton flux for disk events. Third, we have developed an empirical storm (G) forecast model to predict probability and strength of a storm using halo CME - Dst storm data. For this we use storm probability maps depending on CME parameters such as speed, location, and earthward direction. We are also looking for geoeffective CME parameters such as cone model parameters and magnetic field orientation. We find that all superstorms (less than -200 nT) occurred in the western hemisphere with southward field orientations. We have a plan to set up a storm forecast method with a three-stage approach, which will make a prediction within four hours after the solar coronagraph data become available. We expect that this study will enable us to forecast the onset and strength of a geomagnetic storm a few days in advance using only CME parameters and the WSA-ENLIL model. Finally, we discuss several ongoing works for space weather applications.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.133-147
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• 2019

Challenging Minisatellite Payload (CHAMP) satellite magnetic data are used to investigate the latitudinal variation of the storm-time meso-scale field-aligned currents by defining a new metric called the FAC range. Three major geomagnetic storm events are considered. Alongside SymH, the possible contributions from solar wind dynamic pressure and interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) $B_Z$ are also investigated. The results show that the new metric predicts the latitudinal variation of FACs better than previous studies. As expected, the equatorward expansion and poleward retreat are observed during the storm main phase and recovery phase respectively. The equatorward shift is prominent on the northern duskside, at ${\sim}58^{\circ}$ coinciding with the minimum SymH and dayside at ${\sim}59^{\circ}$ compared to dawnside and nightside respectively. The latitudinal shift of FAC range is better correlated to IMF $B_Z$ in northern hemisphere dusk-dawn magnetic local time (MLT) sectors than in southern hemisphere. The FAC range latitudinal shifts responds better to dynamic pressure in the duskside northern hemisphere and dawnside southern hemisphere than in southern hemisphere dusk sector and northern hemisphere dawn sector respectively. FAC range exhibits a good correlation with dynamic pressure in the dayside (nightside) southern (northern) hemispheres depicting possible electrodynamic similarity at day-night MLT sectors in the opposite hemispheres.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
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• v.2
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• pp.47-51
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• 2006

Among Solar activities' events, the geomagnetic storms are believed to cause the largest atmospheric effects. The geomagnetic storm is a complex process of solar wind/magnetospheric origin. It is well known to affect severely on the ionosphere. However, this effect of this complex process will maybe act at various altitudes in the atmosphere, even including the lower layer and the neutral middle atmosphere, particularly the stratosphere. Nowadays, the GPS-derived ZTD (zenith tropospheric delay) can be transformed into the precipitable water vapor (PWV) through a function relation, and further has been widely used in meteorology, especially in improving the precision of Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models. However, such geomagnetic effects on the atmosphere are ignored in GPS meteorology applications. In this paper, we will investigate the geomagnetic storms' effects on the middle atmosphere and troposphere (0-100km) by GPS observations and other data. It has found that geomagnetic storms' effect on the atmosphere also appears in the troposphere, but the mechanism to interpret correlations in the troposphere need be further studied.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.245-250
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• 2017

As a part of collaborative efforts to understand ionospheric irregularities, the Korea ionospheric scintillation sites (KISS) network has been built based on global positioning system (GPS) receivers with sampling rates higher than 1 Hz. We produce the rate of TEC index (ROTI) to represent GPS TEC fluctuations related to ionospheric irregularities. In the KISS network, two ground-based GPS sites at Kiruna (marker: KIRN; geographic: $67.9^{\circ}$ N, $21.4^{\circ}$ E; geomagnetic: $65.2^{\circ}$ N) and Chuuk (marker: CHUK; geographic: $7.5^{\circ}$ N, $151.9^{\circ}$ E; geomagnetic: $0.4^{\circ}$ N) were selected to evaluate the ROTI value for ionospheric irregularities during the occurrence of the 2015 St. Patrick's Day storm. The KIRN ROTI values in the aurora region appear to be generally much higher than the CHUK ROTI values in the EIA region. The CHUK ROTI values increased to ~0.5 TECU/min around UT=13:00 (LT=23:00) on March 16 in the quiet geomagnetic condition. On March 17, 2015, CHUK ROTI values more than 1.0 TECU/min were measured between UT=9:00 and 12:00 (LT=19:00 and 22:00) during the first main phase of the St. Patrick's Day storm. This may be due to ionospheric irregularities by increased pre-reversal enhancement (PRE) after sunset during the geomagnetic storm. Post-midnight, the CHUK ROTI showed two peaks of ~0.5 TECU/min and ~0.3 TECU/min near UT=15:00 (LT=01:00) and UT=18:00 (LT=04:00) at the second main phase. The KIRN site showed significant peaks of ROTI around geomagnetic latitude=$63.3^{\circ}$ N and MLT=15:40 on the same day. These can be explained by enhanced ionospheric irregularities in the auroral oval at the maximum of AE index

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.19-27
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• 2020

Pc1 pulsations are important to consider for the interpretation of wave-particle interactions in the Earth's magnetosphere. In fact, the wave properties of these pulsations change dynamically when they propagate from the source region in the space to the ground. A detailed study of the wave features can help understanding their time evolution mechanisms. In this study, we statistically analyzed Pc1 pulsations observed by a Bohyunsan (BOH) magneto-impedance (MI) sensor located in Korea (L = 1.3) for ~one solar cycle (November 2009-August 2018). In particular, we investigated the temporal occurrence ratio of Pc1 pulsations (considering seasonal, diurnal, and annual variations in the solar cycle), their wave properties (e.g., duration, peak frequency, and bandwidth), and their relationship with geomagnetic activities by considering the Kp and Dst indices in correspondence of the Pc1 pulsation events. We found that the Pc1 waves frequently occurred in March in the dawn (1-3 magnetic local time (MLT)) sector, during the declining phase of the solar cycle. They generally continued for 2-5 minutes, reaching a peak frequency of ~0.9 Hz. Finally, most of the pulsations have strong dependence on the geomagnetic storm and observed during the early recovery phase of the geomagnetic storm.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.231-239
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• 2013

To identify seasonal and latitudinal variations of F2 layer during magnetic storm, we examine the change of daily averages of foF2 observed at Kokubunji and Hobart during high (2000~2002) and low (2006~2008) solar activity intervals. It is found that geomagnetic activity has a different effect on the ionospheric F2-layer electron density variation for different seasons and different latitudes. We, thus, investigate how the change of geomagnetic activity affects the ionospheric F2-layer electron density with season and latitude. For this purpose, two magnetic storms occurred in equinox (31 March 2001) and solstice (20 November 2003) seasons are selected. Then we investigate foF2, which are observed at Kokubunji, Townsville, Brisbane, Canberra and Hobart, Dst index, Ap index, and AE index for the two magnetic storm periods. These observatories have similar geomagnetic longitude, but have different latitude. Furthermore, we investigate the relation between the foF2 and the [O]/[$N_2$] ratio and TEC variations during 19-22 November 2003 magnetic storm period. As a result, we find that the latitudinal variations of [O]/[$N_2$] ratio and TEC are closely related with the latitudinal variation of foF2. Therefore, we conclude that the seasonal and latitudinal variations of foF2 during magnetic storm are caused by the seasonal and latitudinal variations of mean meridional circulation of the thermosphere, particularly upwelling and downwelling of neutral atmosphere during magnetic storm.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.269-274
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• 2007

We established a regional ionospheric model for investigating ionospheric TEC (Total Electron Contents) variations over the Korean Peninsula during major geomagnetic storms. In order to monitor the ionospheric TEC variations, we used nine permanent GPS reference stations uniformly distributed in South Korea operated by the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI). The cubic spline smoothing (CSS) interpolation method was used to analyze the characteristics of the ionospheric TEC variations. It has been found that variations of TEC over the Korean Peninsula increase when a major geomagnetic storm occurred on November 20, 2003. The TEC has increased about one and a half of those averaged quite days at the specific time during a geomagnetic storm. It has been indicated that the KASI GPS-derived TEC has a correlation with the geomagnetic storm indices (eq. Kp and Dst indices).