• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.36-36
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• 2002

Everyday meteors can be classified into sporadic meteors and shower-meteors. We compile the meteor records in the astronomical archives in the history book of Koryo dynasty (Koryosa), and investigate the spatial distribution of meteories along the orbit of the Earth during the period between the 10th century and the 14th century. We discover several peaks in cumulative frequency of meteors excluding showers, which means the presence of the strong concentrations of meteorites at the ecliptic longitudes. We also compiled the whole records of meteor showers during the same period from the history books of Korean, Japan, and China, and then compare dates of their display with dates obtained in Koryosa archive. Especially the strong concentration at 27 July is exactly coincident with a meteor shower at the same date. We devide the data into two sets, which are before and after 1200 A.D., and find out that the strength of meteor concentration has been changing. Especially the shower at 27 July weaken as time goes by.

• Bulletin of the Korean Space Science Society
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• 2010.04a
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• pp.29.4-30
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• 2010

A VHF meteor radar at King Sejong Station ($162.22^{\circ}S$, $58.78^{\circ}W$), Antarctica has been observing meteors during a period of March 2007-July 2009. We analyzed the height profiles of the observed meteor decay times between 70 and 95 km by classifying strong and weak meteors according to their estimated electron line densities. The height profiles of monthly averaged decay times show a peak whose altitude varies with season in the range of 80~85 km: higher peak in southern spring and summer than in fall and winter. The higher peak during summer is consistent with colder temperatures that cause faster chemical reactions of electron removal, as effective recombination rates measured by rocket experiments. The height profiles of 15-min averaged decay times show a clear increasing trend with decreasing altitude from 95 km to the peak altitude, especially for weak meteors. This feature for weak meteors is well explained by ambipolar diffusion of meteor trails, allowing one to estimate atmospheric temperatures and pressures, as in previous studies. However, the strong meteors show not only significant scatters but also different slope of the increasing trend from 95 km to the peak altitude. Therefore, atmospheric temperature estimation from meteor decay times should be applied for weak meteors only. In this study, we present the simple model decay times to explain the height profiles of the observed decay times and discuss the additional removal processes of meteor trail electrons through the empirical recombination and by icy particles.

• 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.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.83.3-83.3
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• 2015

During a six-month period (autumn 2014 within the framework of a research & education project) we have constructed a professional double-station video-meteor detection network at the SOAO and BOAO mountain summits. Meteor detection is achieved by pixel-to-pixel motion-detection trigger. Each station is nearly autonomous and has three cameras with fixed viewing angles monitoring part of the night-sky over Korea. Various field of views are in use for testing purpose and captured video-meteor data is automatically transferred to a central FTP server on a nightly basis. Data is publicly available. The network has been operational since September 2014 and could serve as a prototype system for a more extended national network for meteor/fireball monitoring and detection in Korean airspace. We will report on the network construction, technical setup and present first results of detected meteors and fireballs. Further information: Meteors@KASI: http://meteor.kasi.re.kr.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.62.2-63
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• 2015

During a six-month period (autumn 2014 within the framework of a research & education project) we have constructed a professional double-station video-meteor detection network at the SOAO and BOAO mountain summits. Meteor detection is achieved by pixel-to-pixel motion-detection trigger. Each station is nearly autonomous and has three cameras with fixed viewing angles monitoring part of the night-sky over Korea. Various field of views are in use for testing purpose and captured video-meteor data is automatically transferred to a central FTP server on a nightly basis. Data is publicly available. The network has been operational since September 2014 and could serve as a prototype system for a more extended national network for meteor/fireball monitoring and detection in Korean airspace. We will report on the network construction, technical setup and present first results of detected meteors and fireballs. Further information: Meteors@KASI: http://meteor.kasi.re.kr.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.83-92
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• 2018

The summer polar lower thermosphere (90-100 km) has an interesting connection to meteors, adjacent to the mesopause region attaining the lowest temperature in summer. Meteors supply condensation nuclei for charged ice particles causing polar mesospheric summer echoes (PMSE). We report the observation of meteor trail with nearly horizontal transit at high speed (20-50 km/s), and at last with re-enhanced echo power followed by diffusive echoes. Changes in phase difference between radar receivers aligned in meridional and zonal directions are used to determine variations in horizontal displacements and speeds with respect to time by taking advantage of radar interferometric analysis. The actual transit of echo target is observed along the straight pathway vertically and horizontally extended as much as a distance of at least 24 km and at most 29 km. The meteor trail initially has a signature similar to 'head echoes', with travel speeds from 20 - 50 km/s. It subsequently transforms into a different type of echo target including specular echo and then finally the power reenhanced. The reenhancement of echo power is followed by fume-like diffusive echoes, indicating sudden release of plasma as like explosive process probably involved. We discuss a possible role of meteor-triggered secondary plasma trail, such as fireball embedded with electrical discharge that continuously varies the power and transit speed.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.93-103
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• 2018

Non-specular, vertically upward transit, fast-moving radar echoes are observed in the summer polar upper mesosphere near 90 km using 52 MHz VHF radar at Esrange, Sweden. By resolving maximum echo power movement, the unusual meteor trails propagate vertically upward with taking horizontal displacements at an initial speed of 10 km/s exponentially decreasing with increasing height from 85-89 km, lasting for 3.5 sec. Another upward transit is observed as following a downward transit echo target in about ~1 sec, lasting over 5 sec. The upward motion cannot be explained with the dynamics of penetrating meteors or by atmospheric dynamics. The observation proposes that secondary produced plasma jets occurring from meteor trail are possibly responsible for upward fast moving echoes. The long-lasting (3-5 sec), ascending meteor trails at speeds of a few $10^4m/s$ are distinctive from any previous occurrences of meteors or upper atmospheric electrical discharges in the aspect of long-lasting upward/downward motions. This result possibly suggests a new type of meteor-trail leader discharge occurring in the summer polar upper mesosphere and lower thermosphere.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.23-40
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• 2002

The spatial distribution of meteoroids or cometary debris along the orbit of the Earth is investigated by analyzing the meteoric records in the Chronicle of the Koryo dynasty (918-1392) which is called Koryosa. Sporadic meteors in this period show the seasonal variation in number, which is similar to the current meteors. We also found that there are a few spikes showing large accumulation of records around the same dates. We regard these spikes as meteor showers in the Koryo period. We compared the dates of meteor showers with those compiled from the historical records around the world including Korea, Japan, China, Arab, and European countries. We discovered three prominent showers and four weak showers. The prominent ones are the Leonids, the Perseids, and the Aquarids and the Orionids pair. The last pair is the remnants of Halley's comet. The astronomical records written in the history book of the Koryo dynasty are turned out to be accurate and written in a steady manner. We can also see that those records can be useful to contribute the development of modern astronomy and astrophysics.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.293-310
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• 2005

We made a revised catalogue for reliable records of meteor outbursts that were recorded in Korean, Japanese, and Chinese chronicles. In order to avoid the effects of both Earth's precession and perihelion shift, we introduced a new time-coordinate of records, or the number of days elapsed within the sidereal year of the record for a given origin of time or the perihelion passage time of the you 2000. We added nineteen new records of meteor showers that are wrongly classified i, individual meteors in a Chinese archive. We found that the ${\eta}-Aquarids,$ the Perseids, the Orionids, and the Leonids have been active during the last two millennia. Due to the change of time-coordinate, the oldest record of each long-lasting meteor shower has been slightly corrected. We discuss that these long-lasting meteor showers belong to the Halley-type comets.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.211-224
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• 2011

This is a written version of an hour-long lecture delivered by the author on June 30, 2011, as Plasmadynamics and Lasers Award Lecture at the AIAA 2011 summer conference in Honolulu, Hawaii. The author proposes that two areas of planetary entry physics be pursued in the future: outer planet aero-capturing and study of aerodynamics of meteoroid entries, both for the purpose of advancing the understanding of the possible extraterrestrial seeding of building blocks of life. For outer planet aero-capturing, the author proposes to develop new shock tube facilities that will produce up to 30 km/s of shock speed without causing photo-ionization of the driven gas by the radiation from the hot driver gas. Regarding meteors, the author proposes to carry out laboratory testing of the Tunguska event and of the seeding of amino acid molecules using a ballistic range which shoots a snowball laden with amino acid molecules toward a water surface.