• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.45-57
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• 2023

This study examined the effect of solar flux (F10.7) and sunspots number (R) on the daily variation of equatorial electrojet (EEJ) and morning/afternoon counter electrojet (MCEJ/ACEJ) in the ionospheric E region across the eight longitudinal sectors during quiet days from January 2008 to December 2013. In particular, we focus on both minimum and maximum solar cycle of 24. For this purpose, we have collected a 6-year ground-based magnetic data from multiple stations to investigate EEJ/CEJ climatology in the Peruvian, Brazilian, West & East African, Indian, Southeast Asian, Philippine, and Pacific sectors with the corresponding F10.7 and R data from satellites simultaneously. Our results reveal that the variations of monthly mean EEJ intensities were consistent with the variations of solar flux and sunspot number patterns of a cycle, further indicating that there is a significant seasonal and longitudinal dependence. During the high solar cycle period, F10.7 and R have shown a strong peak around equinoctial months, consequently, the strong daytime EEJs occurred in the Peruvian and Southeast Asian sectors followed by the Philippine regions throughout the years investigated. In those sectors, the correlation between the day Maxima EEJ and F10.7 strengths have a positive value during periods of high solar activity, and they have relatively higher values than the other sectors. A predominance of MCEJ occurrences is observed in the Brazilian (TTB), East African (AAE), and Peruvian (HUA) sectors. We have also observed the CEJ dependence on solar flux with an anti-correlation between ACEJ events and F10.7 are observed especially during a high solar cycle period.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.315-320
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• 2012

We developed a mass-memory chip by staking 1 Gbit double data rate 2 (DDR2) synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM) memory core up to 4 Gbit storage for future satellite missions which require large storage for data collected during the mission execution. To investigate the resistance of the chip to the space radiation environment, we have performed heavy-ion-driven single event experiments using Heavy Ion Medical Accelerator in Chiba medium energy beam line. The radiation characteristics are presented for the DDR2 SDRAM (K4T1G164QE) fabricated in 56 nm technology. The statistical analyses and comparisons of the characteristics of chips fabricated with previous technologies are presented. The cross-section values for various single event categories were derived up to ~80 $MeVcm^2/mg$. Our comparison of the DDR2 SDRAM, which was fabricated in 56 nm technology node, with previous technologies, implies that the increased degree of integration causes the memory chip to become vulnerable to single-event functional interrupt, but resistant to single-event latch-up.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.11-22
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• 2022

It is suggested that magnetosonic waves (also known as equatorial noise) can scatter radiation belt electrons in the Earth's magnetosphere. Therefore, it is important to understand the global distribution of these waves between the proton cyclotron frequency and the lower hybrid resonance frequency. In this study, we developed an empirical model for estimating the global distribution of magnetosonic wave amplitudes and wave normal angles. The model is based on the entire mission period (approximately 2012-2019) of observations of Van Allen Probes A and B as a function of the distance from the Earth (denoted by L^*), magnetic local time (MLT), magnetic latitude (λ), and geomagnetic activity (denoted by the Kp index). In previous studies the wave distribution inside and outside the plasmasphere were separately investigated and modeled. Our model, on the other hand, identifies the wave distribution along with the ambient plasma environment-defined by the ratio of the plasma frequency (f_pe) to the electron cyclotron frequency (f_ce)-without separately determining the wave distribution according to the plasmapause location. The model results show that, as Kp increases, the dayside wave amplitude in the equatorial region intensifies. It thereby propagates the intense region towards the wider MLT and inward to L^* < 4. In contrast, the f_pe/f_ce ratio decreases with increasing Kp for all regions. Nevertheless, the decreasing aspect differs between regions above and below L^* = 4. This finding implies that the particle energy and pitch angle that magnetosonic waves can effectively scatter vary depending on the locations and geomagnetic activity. Our model agrees with the statistically observed wave distribution and ambient plasma environment with a coefficient of determination of > 0.9. The model is valid in all MLTs, 2 ≤ L^* < 6, |λ| < 20°, and Kp ≤ 6.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.271-280
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• 2017

This study presents the application of satellite laser ranging (SLR) to orbit determination (OD) of high-Earth-orbit (HEO) satellites. Two HEO satellites are considered: the Quasi-Zenith Satellite-1 (QZS-1), a Japanese elliptical-inclinedgeosynchronous-orbit (EIGSO) satellite, and the Compass-G1, a Chinese geostationary-orbit (GEO) satellite. One week of normal point (NP) data were collected for each satellite to perform the OD based on the batch least-square process. Five SLR tracking stations successfully obtained 374 NPs for QZS-1 in eight days, whereas only two ground tracking stations could track Compass-G1, yielding 68 NPs in ten days. Two types of station bias estimation and a station data weighting strategy were utilized for the OD of QZS-1. The post-fit root-mean-square (RMS) residuals of the two week-long arcs were 11.98 cm and 10.77 cm when estimating the biases once in an arc (MBIAS). These residuals were decreased significantly to 2.40 cm and 3.60 cm by estimating the biases every pass (PBIAS). Then, the resultant OD precision was evaluated by the orbit overlap method, yielding three-dimensional errors of 55.013 m with MBIAS and 1.962 m with PBIAS for the overlap period of six days. For the OD of Compass-G1, no station weighting strategy was applied, and only MBIAS was utilized due to the lack of NPs. The post-fit RMS residuals of OD were 8.81 cm and 12.00 cm with 49 NPs and 47 NPs, respectively, and the corresponding threedimensional orbit overlap error for four days was 160.564 m. These results indicate that the amount of SLR tracking data is critical for obtaining precise OD of HEO satellites using SLR because additional parameters, such as station bias, are available for estimation with sufficient tracking data. Furthermore, the stand-alone SLR-based orbit solution is consistently attainable for HEO satellites if a target satellite is continuously trackable for a specific period.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.327-334
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to develop an observation program for obtaining effective flat images that are necessary for photometric observation. The development of the program was achieved by improving the existing method for obtaining twilight flat images. The existing method for obtaining twilight flat images acquires flat images by observing the sky light after sunset or light before sunrise. The decision of when to observe flat images at each night is solely dependent on the judgment of an observer, and thus the obtained flat images for particular nights may not be clean. Especially, in the case of the observatories where an automated observation system is in operation, there is a difficulty that an observer should pay attention during sunrise and sunset in order to obtain flat images. In this study, a computer program is developed to improve this inconvenience and to efficiently perform photometric observation in the observatories where an automated observation system is applied. This program can obtain flat images by calculating the time for obtaining flat images automatically and the exposure time using a numerically calculated function. When obtaining twilight flat images at dusk and at dawn, the developed program performs automated observation and provides effective flat images by acquiring appropriate exposure time considering the sunrise and sunset times that vary depending on the day of observation. The code for performing this task was added to Obs Tool II (Yoon et al. 2006), which is the automated observation system of the Chungbuk National University Observatory, and the usefulness of the developed program was examined by performing an actual automated observation. If this program is applied to other observatories where automated observation is in operation, it is expected that stable and high-quality flat images could be obtained, which can be used for the pre-processing of photometric observation data.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.121-128
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• 2004

As the first step of the real time monitoring system of the solar radio disturbance, we constructed the control system of the solar radio telescope. An 1.8m antenna built by Korean Astronomy Observatory has been used, and the observed radio flux is transformed to the digital signal by the powermeter. We have also developed a computer program CBNUART in order to control the telescope system and the powermeter. As the sun rises, the telescope begins to observe the sun, and ends the observation automatically at sunset. The CBNUART enables the telescope automatically to go to the position of the sunrise for the beginning the observation and come back to the setposition after the ending the observation at the sunset. An active tracking routine is adopted in order to improve the tracking accuracy of the control system, and we used an optical telescope equipped in front of the antenna for control test. The tracking test shows that our control system can track with the accuracy of arc seconds, and the 50 minute pointing test shows that the pointing accuracy of right ascension and declination are 1.12 and 0.08 arc minutes respectively.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.337-342
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• 2012

In this study, the transient second or third layer on the topside of the Martian ionosphere were investigated with the most recently released Mars advanced radar for subsurface and ionospheric sounding/Mars Express data obtained from January 2010 to September 2011 to study the correlation between these topside additional layers and surface magnetic fields, solar zenith angle and solar activities. When examining the zones where the topside layer appeared, the occurrence rate of the topside layer was low at the areas with a strong Martian crustal magnetic field as observed by the Mars global surveyor. The occurrence rate of additional layers on the Martian topside ionosphere decreases as the solar zenith angle increases. However, these layers appeared significantly near the terminator of which solar zenith angle is $90^{\circ}$. In comparison between F10.7 which is the index of solar activities and the occurrence rate of the topside layer by date, its occurrence rate was higher in 2011 than in 2010 with less solar activities. The result of this study will contribute to better understanding of the environments in the topside of the ionosphere through the correlation between the various conditions regarding the Martian ionosphere and the transient layer.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.149-156
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• 2008

Forbush Decreases (FDs) are representative events of abrupt decrease in galactic cosmic ray intensity. They are known to be strongly associated with solar wind events such as interplanetary shock (IP shock) and magnetic cloud (MC). In order to examine effectiveness of the MC on FDs, I studied the 44 MCs that occurred during the 2 years from 1998 to 1999 and investigated the properties of interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) and solar wind. As a result, I found that 11 out of 44 MCs are associated with the FDs. In particularly, it is noted that the FDs are driven by the IP shock sheaths which are associated with over 13 nT of IMF magnitude, 3 nT of IMF turbulence, and 550km/s of solar wind speed. This result indicates that magnetic cloud and its interplanetary shock sheath work as a modulator of the cosmic ray intensity.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.343-350
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• 2004

The charge exchange (or transfer) due to collision with hydrogen has important effects on the physical characteristics of astrophysical plasma. In this paper, collisional ionization equilibrium in the temperature range of ${\sim}1,000--80,000K$ are investigated for C, N, and O ions including the effects of charge exchange. The calculated ionic abundance fractions are compared with those of previous works. The ionic abundance fractions calculated in the paper can be used in understanding the spectroscopic properties of warm interstellar medium. It is also found that the ratio between the degree of ionization of oxygen and that of hydrogen shows big difference with the previously well-known result for the environment where the collisional ionization is not important. This implies that investigations on the collisional ionization in the warm interstellar medium are required.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.99-110
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• 2009

The main purpose of the current research is to developments a real-time Hardware In-the-Loop (HIL) simulation testbed for the satellite formation flying navigation and orbit control. The HIL simulation testbed is integrated for demonstrations and evaluations of navigation and orbit control algorithms. The HIL simulation testbed is composed of Environment computer, GPS simulator, Flight computer and Visualization computer system. GPS measurements are generated by a SPIRENT GSS6560 multi-channel RF simulator to produce pseudorange, carrier phase measurements. The measurement date are transferred to Satrec Intiative space borne GPS receiver and exchanged by the flight computer system and subsequently processed in a navigation filter to generate relative or absolute state estimates. These results are fed into control algorithm to generate orbit controls required to maintain the formation. These maneuvers are informed to environment computer system to build a close simulation loop. In this paper, the overall design of the HIL simulation testbed for the satellite formation flying navigation and control is presented. Each component of the testbed is then described. Finally, a LEO formation navigation and control simulation is demonstrated by using virtual scenario.