• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.77-79
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• 2005

We had the first committee meeting of the East Asia VLBI Consortium during the EAMA6 meeting held in Seoul. A VLBI network composed of telescopes in the East Asia region could provide extreme properties, and the coordination of them has been expected. The Committee of the East Asia VLBI Consortium is a standing committee to promote activities of the consortium, in which participating countries at present are China, Japan, and Korea over eight institutes/observatories. Here we introduce the Consortium and Committee.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.15-21
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• 2010

We report results of image simulations of the KVN and VLBI experiments of the KVN with several other East Asia VLBI facilities. To investigate their imaging capability a model-generated image of 7 mm SiO maser emission in Mira variables is used. The resulting simulations show that the joint VLBI experiments of the KVN with East Asia VLBI facilities can produce reasonably good images at 7 mm spectral line experiments. However, there are no apparent differences in peak flux densities and images themselves in the simulations among different combinations of these facilities. In addition, the simulated images of observations which include bigger antennas do not show any expected improvement to the image sensitivity. The small variations in the peak flux density and similar image sensitivity, irrespective of different antenna sizes or numbers of baselines used in the simulations, turn out due to a specific characteristic of the adopted model image. Test simulations using another SiO maser image from R Cas observations prove that the participation of bigger antennas in the VLBI experiments does improve image sensitivity. We confirm the need of additional longer baselines in the experiments of the East Asia VLBI facilities to study very compact maser clumps on sub-milliarcsecond scales.

• Bulletin of the Korean Space Science Society
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• 2006.04a
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• pp.30-30
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• 2006

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.337-344
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• 2006

KVN simulation, which is focused on evaluating the impacts of KVN to geodetic VLBI network, was performed. The KVN is under construction with three radio telescopes VLBI system for radio astronomy and space geodesy. To distinguish the impacts of KVN on global and local scale networks, we designed two different sizes of VLBI networks, namely, KVN-Asia and KVN-Pacific. While the former consisted of Far East Asia region VLBI stations, the latter consisted of pacific region VLBT stations. The primary purpose of our simulation is quantitative evaluation of KVN impacts before and after the participation of KVN in the previous two virtual networks. We selected two different sets of parameters to be estimated in the simulation as indices of evaluating estimation precision: station coordinates and EOPs. The station coordinates are evaluating index for KVN-Asia and the EOPs are another evaluating index for KVN-Pacific. From the simulation results of comparisons between evaluating indexes, 50% and 20% of maximum improvements for KVN-Asia and KVN-Pacific were anticipated respectively. We expect that the space geodetic use of KVN will be focused on the several promising research fields which are proposed through the simulation results.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.207-216
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• 2019

In this paper we introduce a software package, the Very long baseline interferometry Network SIMulator (VNSIM), which provides an integrated platform assisting radio astronomers to design Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) experiments and evaluate the network performance, with a user-friendly interface. Though VNSIM is primarily motivated by the East Asia VLBI Network, it can also be used for other VLBI networks and generic interferometers. The software package not only integrates the functionality of plotting (u, v) coverage, scheduling the observation, and displaying the dirty and CLEAN images, but also adds new features including sensitivity calculations for a given VLBI network. VNSIM provides flexible interactions on both command line and graphical user interface and offers friendly support for log reports and database management. Multi-processing acceleration is also supported, enabling users to handle large survey data. To facilitate future developments and updates, all simulation functions are encapsulated in separate Python modules, allowing independent invoking and testing. In order to verify the performance of VNSIM, we performed simulations and compared the results with other simulation tools, showing good agreement.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.75.4-76
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• 2015

우리는 동아시아 각국(대한민국, 중국, 일본)의 VLBI관측망을 통합하고 구성될 동아시아 VLBI 관측망(East Asia VLBI Network; EAVN)의 초기 검증 작업을 진행하고 있다. EAVN은 2 ~ 129 GHz로 관측이 가능하는데, 주로 6.7, 8, 22, 43 GHz로의 관측을 상정하고 있다. 또한 최대 기선장은 약 5,000 km으로 공간분해능은 약 0.3 mas(43 GHz로의 관측의 경우)가 된다. 높은 공간분해능과 고감도의 특징을 활용하고 저광도 활동성은하핵이나 우리 은하의 메이저 천체 등의 연구에 대해서 위력을 나타낼 수가 있다. 우리는 EAVN 시험관측, 상관처리, 자료처리의 실행, 및 그것들을 통한 EAVN 운영의 검증을 하는 EAVN Tiger Team을 2013년에 조직하고 현재까지에 8 GHz 및 22 GHz로 8회의 VLBI 시험관측을 실행하였다. 상관처리는 주로 한국천문연구원에서 운영하고 있는 한일 공동상관기(KJJVC)와 상하이천문대의 소프트웨어 상관기(DiFX)로 실행되어 있다. 현재까지에 8 GHz 및 22 GHz 쌍방에서 프린지검출에 성공하고 있고, 올해는 영상합성을 포함한 과학적인 관측을 진행할 예정이다. 이 발표에서는 EAVN의 개요와 과학목표, 시험관측 현황과 결과, 및 앞으로의 운영 계획 등을 소개하겠다.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.207-213
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• 2022

The Seoul Radio Astronomy Observatory (SRAO) operates a 6.1-meter radio telescope on the Gwanak campus of Seoul National University. We present the efforts to reform SRAO to a Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) station, motivated by recent achievements by millimeter interferometer networks such as Event Horizon Telescope, East Asia VLBI Network, and Korean VLBI Network (KVN). For this goal, we installed a receiver that had been used in the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy and a digital backend, including an H-maser clock. The existing hardware and software were also revised, which had been dedicated only to single-dish operations. After several years of preparations and test observations in 1 and 3-millimeter bands, a fringe was successfully detected toward 3C 84 in 86 GHz in June 2022 for a baseline between SRAO and KVN Ulsan station separated by 300 km. Thanks to the dual frequency operation of the receiver, the VLBI observations will soon be extended to the 1 mm band and verify the frequency phase referencing technique between 1 and 3-millimeter bands.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.641-643
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• 2015

VLBI experiments have been conducted by radio telescopes in the East Asia VLBI Network (EAVN) in which 14 telescopes in China, Japan, and Korea participated. One of the aims of the EAVN is to obtain higher angular resolution that is provided by the 6,000 km baseline between China and Japan and better sensitivity by adding large telescopes. Data were recorded at 1 a Gbps recording rate at all stations and processed on the Korea-Japan Joint VLBI Correlator (KJJVC) at the Korea-Japan Correlation Center (KJCC) after experiments. Fringes were obtained from these experiments conducted at 8 GHz and 22 GHz and post-correlation data analysis of the experiments is undergoing. The outcomes of these experiments open the possibility of conducting EAVN observations with global VLBI networks. In this presentation, the recent status of these experiments and future prospects are presented.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.637-639
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• 2015

The Korean very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) network (KVN) and VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry (VERA) Array (KaVA) is the first international VLBI array dedicated to high-frequency (23 GHz (K-band) and 43 GHz (Q-band)) observations in East Asia. To evaluate the imagine capability of KaVA, we performed imaging observations of three bright active galactic nuclei (AGNs) known for their complex morphologies: 4C 39.25, 3C 273, and M87 by KaVA at K-/Q-band. Our KaVA images reveal extended outflows with complex substructure such as knots and limb brightening, in agreement with previous observations by other VLBI facilities. Angular resolutions are better than 1.4 and 0.8 milliarcsecond (max) at K-/Q-band, respectively. KaVA achieves a high dynamic range of ~1000, more than three times the value achieved by VERA. We conclude that KaVA is a powerful array with a great potential for the study of AGN outflows, at least comparable to the best existing radio interferometric arrays.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.91-107
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• 2008

In this paper, we introduce the performance evaluation and development of Raw VLBI Data Buffer(RVDB) system for the synchronized playback processing of observed data in Korea-Japan Joint VLBI Correlator(KJJVC). The high-speed correlation processing system is under development so that the radio data obtained with 8192 channels and 8 Gbps speed from 16 stations will be able to be processed. When the recorded data of each station are played to correlator, the time synchronization of each station is very important because the correlator should process the data obtained with same time and condition. There are many types of recorder systems in the East Asia VLBI Network (EAVN). Therefore it is required to prepare the special time synchronized playback processing system to synchronize the time tag of observed data. The developed RVDB system consists of Data Input Output(DIO), 10GbE switch, and Disk Data Buffer(DDB). It can record the data with maximum 2 Gbps speed, and can play back the data to correlator with nominal 2 Gbps speed. To enable to play back the data of different playback system to the correlator, we developed the high-speed time synchronized playback processing system. We carried out the experiments of playing back and correlation for gigabit correlator and VCS trial product so as to confirm the performance of developed time synchronized playback processing system. In case of online and offline playing back experiment for gigabit correlator, we confirmed that the online and offline correlation results were the same. In case of playing back experiment for VCS trial product, we verified that the wide band and narrow band correlation results were also the same. Through the playing back experiments of RVDB system, the effectiveness of developed RVDB system was verified. In this paper, the system design, construction and experimental results are shown briefly.