• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• 제21권4호
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• pp.329-342
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• 2004

In this paper, we present preliminary feasibility studies on three types of solar observation payloads for future Korean Science and Technology Satellite (STSAT) programs. The three candidates are (1) an UV imaging telescope, (2) an UV spectrograph, and (3) an X-ray spectrometer. In the case of UV imaging telescope, the most important constraint seems to be the control stability of a satellite in order to obtain a reasonably good spatial resolution. Considering that the current pointing stability estimated from the data of the Far ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (FIMS) onboard the Korean STSAT-1, is around 1 arc minutes/sec, we think that it is hard to obtain a spatial resolution sufficient for scientific research by such an UV Imaging Telescope. For solar imaging missions, we realize that an image stabilization system, which is composed of a small guide telescope with limb sensor and a servo controller of secondary mirror, is quite essential for a very good pointing stability of about 0.1 arcsec. An UV spectrograph covering the solar full disk seems to be a good choice in that there is no risk due to poor pointing stability as well as that it can provide us with valuable UV spectral irradiance data valuable for studying their effects on the Earth's atmosphere and satellites. The heritage of the FIMS can be a great advantage of developing the UV spectrograph. Its main disadvantage is that two major missions are in operation or scheduled. Our preliminary investigations show that an X-ray spectrometer for the full disk Sun seems to be the best choice among the three candidates. The reasons are : (1) high temporal and spectral X-ray data are very essential for studying the acceleration process of energetic particles associated with solar flares, (2) we have a good heritage of X-ray detectors including a rocket-borne X-ray detector, (3) in the case of developing countries such as India and Czech, solar X-ray spectrometers were selected as their early stage satellite missions due to their poor pointing stabilities, and (4) there is no planned major mission after currently operating Reuven Ramaty High-Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) mission. Finally, we present a preliminary design of a solar X-ray spectrometer covering soft X-ray (2 keV) to gamma ray (10 MeV).

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• 제31권2호
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• pp.169-176
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• 2014

Since the operation of the King Sejong Station (KSS) started in Antarctic Peninsula in 1989, there have been continuous efforts to perform the observation for the upper atmosphere. The observations during the initial period of the station include Fabry-Perot Interferometer (FPI) and Michelson Interferometer for the mesosphere and thermosphere, which are no longer in operation. In 2002, in collaboration with York University, Canada, the Spectral Airglow Temperature Imager (SATI) was installed to observe the temperature in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) region and it has still been producing the mesopause temperature data until present. The observation was extended by installing the meteor radar in 2007 to observe the neutral winds and temperature in the MLT region during the day and night in collaboration with Chungnam National University. We also installed the all sky camera in 2008 to observe the wave structures in the MLT region. All these observations are utilized to study on the physical characteristics of the MLT region and also on the wave phenomena such as the tide and gravity wave in the upper atmosphere over KSS that is well known for the strong gravity wave activity. In this article, brief introductions for the currently operating instruments at KSS will be presented with their applications for the study of the upper atmosphere.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• 제36권2호
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• pp.45-60
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• 2019

The Earth's outer radiation belt has long received considerable attention mainly because the MeV electron flux in the belt varies often dramatically and at various time scales. It is now widely accepted that the wave-particle interaction is one of the major mechanisms responsible for such flux variations. The wave-particle interaction can accelerate electrons to MeV energies, explaining the observed flux increase events, and can also scatter the electrons' motion into the loss cone, resulting in atmospheric precipitation and thus contributing to flux dropouts. In this paper, we provide a review of the current state of research on relativistic electron scattering and precipitation due to the interaction with electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves in the inner magnetosphere. The review is intended to cover progress made over the last ~15 years in the theory and simulations of various issues, including quasilinear resonance diffusion, nonlinear interactions, nonresonant interactions, effects of finite normal angle on pitch angle scattering, effects due to rising tone emission, and ways to scatter near-equatorial pitch angle electrons. The review concludes with suggestions of a few promising topics for future research.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• 제37권1호
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• pp.29-34
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• 2020

On 21 August 2017, during 16:49 UT and 20:02 UT period, a total solar eclipse started. The totality shadow occurred over the United States in time between ~17:15 UT and ~18:47 UT. When the solar radiation is blocked by the moon, observations of the ionospheric parameters will be important in the space weather community. Fortunately, during this eclipse, two Swarm satellites (A and C) flied at about 445 km through lunar penumbra at local noon of United States in the upper ionosphere. In this work, we investigate the effect of the solar eclipse on electron density, slant total electron content (STEC) and electron temperature using data from Swarm mission over United States. We use calibrated measurements of plasma density and electron temperature. Our results indicate that: (1) the electron density and STEC have a significant depletion associated with the eclipse; which could be due to dominance of dissociative recombination over photoionization caused by the reduction of ionizing extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation during the eclipse time (2) the electron temperature decreases, compared with a reference day, by up to ~150 K; which could be due to the decrease in photoelectron heating from reduced photoionization.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• 제27권4호
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• pp.407-412
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• 2010

Software reusability is one of key factors which impacts cost and schedule on a software development project. It is very crucial also in satellite simulator development since there are many commercial simulator models related to satellite and dynamics. If these models can be used in another simulator platform, great deal of confidence and cost/schedule reduction would be achieved. Simulation model portability (SMP) is maintained by European Space Agency and many models compatible with SMP/simulation model interface (SMI) are available. Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) is developing hardware abstraction layer (HAL) supported satellite simulator to verify on-board software of satellite. From above reasons, KARI wants to port these SMI compatible models to the HAL supported satellite simulator. To port these SMI compatible models to the HAL supported satellite simulator, simulation scheduler is preliminary designed according to the SMI standard.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• 제32권4호
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• pp.305-310
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• 2015

In this study, we examined a morningside Pi2 pulsation, with a non-substorm signature, that occurred in very quiet geomagnetic conditions (Kp = 0) at 05:38 UT on December 8, 2012, using data obtained by Van Allen Probes A and B (VAP-A and VAP-B, respectively) and at a ground station. Using 1 sec resolution vector magnetic field data, we measured the X-component of the pulsation from the Abu Simbel ground station (L = 1.07, LT = UT +2 hr, where LT represents local time) in Egypt. At the time of the Pi2 event, Abu Simbel and VAP-A (L = 3.3) were in the morning sector (07:38 LT and 07:59 MLT, respectively, where MLT represents magnetic local time), and VAP-B was in the postmidnight sector (04:18 MLT and L = 5.7). VAP-A and VAP-B observed oscillations in the compressional magnetic field component (Bz), which were in close agreement with the X-component measurements of the Pi2 pulsation that were made at Abu Simbel. The oscillations observed by the satellites and on the ground were in phase. Thus, we concluded that the observed morningside Pi2 pulsation was caused by the cavity resonance mode rather than by ionospheric current systems.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• 제20권4호
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• pp.393-402
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• 2003

The Multi-Spectral Camera (MSC) is the payload of KOMPSAT-2 which is designed for earth imaging in optical and near-infrared region on a sun-synchronous orbit. The telescope in the MSC is a Ritchey-Chretien type with large aperture. The telescope structure should be well stabilized and the optical alignment should be kept steady so that best images can be achieved. However, the MSC is exposed to adverse thermal environment on the orbit which can give impacts on optical performance. Solar incidence can bring non-uniform temperature rise on the telescope tube which entails unfavorable thermal distortion. Three ways of preventing the solar radiation were proposed, which were installing external mechanical shield, internal shield, and maneuvering the spacecraft. After trade-off study, internal sun shield was selected as a practical and optimal solution to minimize the effect of the solar radiation. In addition, detailed designs of the structure and sunshield were produced and analyses have been performed. The results were assessed to verify their impacts to the image quality. It was confirmed that the internal sunshield complies with the requirements and would improve image quality.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• 제31권3호
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• pp.187-197
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• 2014

We have investigated the dynamical stability of the proposed companions orbiting the Algol type short-period eclipsing binary SW Lyncis (Kim et al. 2010). The two candidate companions are of stellar to substellar nature, and were inferred from timing measurements of the system's primary and secondary eclipses. We applied well-tested numerical techniques to accurately integrate the orbits of the two companions and to test for chaotic dynamical behavior. We carried out the stability analysis within a systematic parameter survey varying both the geometries and orientation of the orbits of the companions, as well as their masses. In all our numerical integrations we found that the proposed SW Lyn multi-body system is highly unstable on time-scales on the order of 1000 years. Our results cast doubt on the interpretation that the timing variations are caused by two companions. This work demonstrates that a straightforward dynamical analysis can help to test whether a best-fit companion-based model is a physically viable explanation for measured eclipse timing variations. We conclude that dynamical considerations reveal that the proposed SW Lyncis multi-body system most likely does not exist or the companions have significantly different orbital properties from those conjectured in Kim et al. (2010).

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• 제29권2호
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• pp.199-208
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• 2012

The world's first geostationary ocean color imager (GOCI) is a three-mirror anastigmat optical system 140 mm in diameter. Designed for 500 m ground sampling distance, this paper deals with on-orbit modulation transfer function (MTF)measurement and analysis for GOCI. First, the knife-edge and point source methods were applied to the 8th band (865 nm) image measured April 5th, 2011. The target details used are the coastlines of the Korean peninsula and of Japan, and an island 400 meters in diameter. The resulting MTFs are 0.35 and 0.34 for the Korean East Coastline and Japanese West Coastline edge targets, respectively, and 0.38 for the island target. The daily and seasonal MTF variations at the Nyquist frequency were also checked, and the result is $0.32{\pm}0.04$ on average. From these results, we confirm that the GOCI on-orbit MTF performance satisfies the design requirements of 0.32 for 865 nm wavelength.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• 제30권1호
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• pp.43-48
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• 2013

The geomagnetic activity shows the semiannual variation stronger in vernal and autumnal equinoxes than in summer and winter solstices. The semiannual variation has been explained by three main hypotheses such as Axial hypothesis, Equinoctial hypothesis, and Russell-McPherron Effect. Many studies using the various geomagnetic indices have done to support three main hypotheses. In recent, Oh & Yi (2011) examined the solar magnetic polarity dependency of the geomagnetic storm occurrence defined by Dst index. They reported that there is no dependency of the semiannual variation on the sign of the solar polar fields. This study examines the solar magnetic polarity dependency of quiet time geomagnetic activity. Using Dxt index (Karinen & Mursula 2005) and Dcx index (Mursula & Karinen 2005) which are recently suggested, in addition to Dst index, we analyze the data of three-year at each solar minimum for eight solar cycles since 1932. As a result, the geomagnetic activity is stronger in the period that the solar magnetic polarity is anti-parallel with the Earth's magnetic polarity. There exists the difference between vernal and autumnal equinoxes regarding the solar magnetic polarity dependency. However, the difference is not statistically significant. Thus, we conclude that there is no solar magnetic polarity dependency of the semiannual variation for quiet time geomagnetic activity.