• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.237-244
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• 2006

We produced the electron density distribution in the ionosphere over South Korea using the data from nine permanent GPS (Global Positioning System) stations which have been operated by KASI (Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute). The dual-frequency GPS receiver data was used to precisely estimate the electron density in the ionosphere and we obtained the precise electron density profile based on two-dimensional TEC (Total Electron Contents). We applied ART (Algebraic Reconstruction Technique), which is one of the most commonly used algorithms to develop the tomography model. This paper presented the electron density distribution over South Korea with time. We compared with the electron density profiles derived from the GPS tomography reconstruction, Ionosonde measurement data obtained by observations, and the IRI-2001 values. As a result, the electron density profile by GPS reconstruction was in excellent agreement with the electron density profile obtained by Ionosonde measurement data.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.36 no.5A
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• pp.529-535
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• 2011

The HF communication method is capable of communicating short and long distances without a separate relaying method and is used as the primary/secondary communication method in other nations. However, the Korean military strongly discouraged the use of the method due to issues regarding the skip zone and the fact that the usable frequency changes according to irregularities in the ionosphere. The NVIS communication is less susceptible to noise than typical communications using ionosphere reflection, and is also able to communicate short distances containing skip zones. In this paper, we inspect the NVIS communication methods of foreign nations in order to facilitate the use of HF communications, as well as provide solutions to the issues mentioned above. This paper explains the concept of NVIS communication, and investigates how the Korean military is implementing HF communications based on actual communications data of military corps. Based on this result, we have verified the possibility of overcoming skip zones through NVIS communications, and have considered the applicability of a prediction program in order to enhance the efficiency of HF communications.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.143-149
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• 2018

The ionosphere has been monitored by ionosondes for over five decades since the 1960s in Korea. An ionosonde typically produces an ionogram that displays radio echoes in the frequency-range plane. The trace of echoes in the plane can be read either manually or automatically to derive useful ionospheric parameters such as foF2 (peak frequency of the F2 layer) and hmF2 (peak height of the F2 layer). Monitoring of the ionosphere should be routinely performed in a given time cadence, and thus, automatic scaling of an ionogram is generally executed to obtain ionospheric parameters. However, an auto-scaling program can generate undesirable results that significantly misrepresent the ionosphere. In order to verify the degree of misrepresentation by an auto-scaling program, we performed manual scaling of all 35,136 ionograms measured at Jeju ($33.43^{\circ}N$, $126.30^{\circ}E$) throughout 2012. We compared our manually scaled parameters (foF2 and hmF2) with auto-scaled parameters that were obtained via the ARTIST5002 program. We classified five cases in terms of the erroneous scaling performed by the program. The results of the comparison indicate that the average differences with respect to foF2 and hmF2 between the two methods approximately correspond to 0.03 MHz and 4.1 km, respectively with corresponding standard deviations of 0.12 MHz and 9.58 km. Overall, 36 % of the auto-scaled results differ from the manually scaled results by the first decimal number. Therefore, future studies should be aware of the quality of auto-scaled parameters obtained via ARTIST5002. Hence, the results of the study recommend the use of manually scaled parameters (if available) for any serious applications.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.39-48
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• 2012

We investigate non-LTE effects on the $H_3^+$ level populations to help the analysis of the observed 2 and 3.5 micron $H_3^+$ emissions from the Jovian ionosphere. We begin by constructing a simple three-level model, in order to compute the intensity ratio of the R(3,4) line in the hot band to the Q(1,0) line in the fundamental band, which have been observed in the Jovian auroral regions. We find that non-LTE effects produce only small changes in the intensity ratios for ambient $H_2$ densities less than or equal to $5{\times}10^{11}cm^{-3}$. We then construct two comprehensive models by including all the collisional and radiative transitions between pairs of more than a thousand known $H_3^+$ rovibrational levels with energies less than 10000 $cm^{-1}$. By employing these models, we find that the intensity ratios of the lines in the hot and fundamental bands are affected greatly by non-LTE effects, but the details depend sensitively on the number of collisional and radiative transitions included in the models. Non-LTE effects on the rovibrational population become evident at about the same ambient $H_2$ densities in the comprehensive models as in the three-level model. However, the models show that rotational temperatures derived from the intensities of rotational lines in the ${\nu}_2$ and $2{\nu}_2$ bands may differ significantly from the ambie temperatures in the non-LTE regime. We find that significant non-LTE effects appear near and above the $H_3^+$ peak, and that the kinetic temperatures in the Jovian thermospheric temperatures derived from the observed line ratios in the 2 and 3.5 micron $H_3^+$ emissions are highly model dependent.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.343-352
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• 2017

A space plasma facility has been operated with a back-diffusion-type plasma source installed in a mid-sized vacuum chamber with a diameter of ~1.5 m located in Satellite Technology Research Center (SaTReC), Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). To generate plasma with a temperature and density similar to the ionospheric plasma, nickel wires coated with carbonate solution were used as filaments that emit thermal electrons, and the accelerated thermal electrons emitted from the heated wires collide with the neutral gas to form plasma inside the chamber. By using a disk-type Langmuir probe installed inside the vacuum chamber, the generation of plasma similar to the space environment was validated. The characteristics of the plasma according to the grid and plate anode voltages were investigated. The grid voltage of the plasma source is realized as a suitable parameter for manipulating the electron density, while the plate voltage is suitable for adjusting the electron temperature. A simple physical model based on the collision cross-section of electron impact on nitrogen molecule was established to explain the plasma generation mechanism.

• Bulletin of the Korean Space Science Society
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• 2010.04a
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• pp.30.3-31
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• 2010

We performed a comprehensive comparison between GPS Global Ionosphere Map (GIM) and TOPEX/Jason (T-J) TEC data for the periods of 1998~2009 in order to assess the performance of GIM over the global ocean where the GPS ground stations are very sparse. Using the GIM model constructed by CODE at University of Bern, the GIM TEC values were obtained along the T-J satellite orbit at the locations and times of the measurements and then binned into various geophysical conditions for direct comparison with the T-J TECs. On the whole, the GIM model was able to reproduce the spatial and temporal variations of the global ionosphere as well as the seasonal variations. However, the GIM model was not accurate enough to represent the well-known ionospheric structures such as the equatorial anomaly, the Weddell Sea Anomaly, and the longitudinal wave structure. Furthermore, there seems to be a fundamental limitation of the model showing the unexpected negative differences (i.e., GPS < T-J) in the northern high latitude and the southern middle and high latitude regions. The positive relative differences (i.e., GIM > T-J) at night represent the plasmaspheric contribution to GPS TEC, which is maximized, reaching up to 100% of the corresponding T-J TEC values in the early morning sector. In particular, the relative differences decreased with increasing solar activity and this may indicate that the plasmaspheric contribution to the maintenance of the nighttime ionosphere does not increase with solar activity, which is different from what we normally anticipate. Among these results, the plasmaspheric contribution to the ionospheric GPS TEC will be presented in this talk and the rest of it will presented in the companion paper (poster presentation).

• Convergence Security Journal
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.77-88
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• 2018

The purposes of this paper are to research the military utilization of weather modification techniques and to induce their research priority when considering the Korean Peninsular environment and technical level. To achieve these goals, the advantages and disadvantages of weather modification technologies have been discussed, and the evaluation index evaluation was derived through the Delphi method, and the weight of the evaluation index and the final research priority were induced through analytic hierarchical process. Analysis shows that the ionospheric modulation technology has the highest priority in terms of effectiveness as a weapon system and compatibility in the Korean Peninsula environment. It is expected that Korean ionosphere modification can disturb C4ISR function of the enemy and guarantee ours reliably when operating PGM, military satellite, surveillance & reconnaissance equipments, etc. Other weather modification technologies except for ionosphere modification should be developed gradually in that potential threat can be expanded to neighboring countries after the Unification of the Korea.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.117-126
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• 2022

The Ionospheric Anomaly Monitoring by Magnetometer And Plasma-probe (IAMMAP) is one of the scientific instruments for the Compact Advanced Satellite 500-3 (CAS 500-3) which is planned to be launched by Korean Space Launch Vehicle in 2024. The main scientific objective of IAMMAP is to understand the complicated correlation between the equatorial electro-jet (EEJ) and the equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA) which play important roles in the dynamics of the ionospheric plasma in the dayside equator region. IAMMAP consists of an impedance probe (IP) for precise plasma measurement and magnetometers for EEJ current estimation. The designated sun-synchronous orbit along the quasi-meridional plane makes the instrument suitable for studying the EIA and EEJ. The newly-devised IP is expected to obtain the electron density of the ionosphere with unprecedented precision by measuring the upper-hybrid frequency (f_UHR) of the ionospheric plasma, which is not affected by the satellite geometry, the spacecraft potential, or contamination unlike conventional Langmuir probes. A set of temperature-tolerant precision fluxgate magnetometers, called Adaptive In-phase MAGnetometer, is employed also for studying the complicated current system in the ionosphere and magnetosphere, which is particularly related with the EEJ caused by the potential difference along the zonal direction.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.141-150
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• 2002

The ionosphere plays an important role in the electrodynamics of space environment. In particular, the information on the ionospheric conductivity distribution is indispensable in understanding the electrodynamics of the magnetosphere and ionosphere coupling study. To meet such a requirement, several attempts have been made to estimate the conductivity distribution over the polar ionosphere. As one of such attempts we compare the ionospheric plasma convection patterns obtained from the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN), from which the electric field distribution is estimated, and the simultaneously measured ground magnetic disturbance. Specifically, the electric field measured from the Goose Bay and Stokkseyri radars and magnetic disturbance data obtained from the west coast chain of Greenland are compared. In order to estimate ionospheric conductivity distribution with these information, the overhead infinite sheet current approximation is employed. As expected, the Hall conductance, height-integrated conductivity, shows a wide enhancement along the center of the auroral electrojet. However, Pedersen conductance shows negative values over a wide portion of the auroral oval region, a physically unacceptable situation. To alleviate this problem, the effect of the field-aligned current is taken into account. As a result, the region with negative Pedersen conductance disappears significantly, suggesting that the effect of the field-aligned current should be taken into account, when one wants to estimate ionospheric conductance based on ground magnetic disturbance and electric field measurements by radars.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.71-80
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• 1994

It is generally known that the measurement of the ionospheric total electron content(TEC) by GPS can more accurately monitor the broader area of the ionosphere than other current methods. \Ve measured the TEC along a slant path considering the arrival time differences of P-code which is transmitted from GPS satellites with the modulation on two L-band carrier frequencies, L1 (1574.42MHz) and L2 (1227.60MHz). Under the assumptions that the ionosphere is uniformly distributed and its average height is 350km, we transformed the slant TEC to the vertical TEC at the point that the line-of-sight direction to GPS satellite cut across the average height of the ionosphere. Because there is no dual frequency P-code GPS receiver in Korea, we used the data observed at the TAIW GPS station ($N25^{\circ},E121.5^{\circ}$) in Taiwan which is one of the core stations in International GPS and Geodynamics Services (IGS). The TEC values obtained in this work showed a typical daily variation of the ionosphere which is high in the daytime and low in the nighttime. Our results are found to be consistent with the SOLAR-DAILY data of NOAA and the Klobuchar's model for the ionospheric correction of GPS. In addition, in the cornparision with SOLAR-DAILY data, we estimated the precision of our TEC measurement as 2 TEC.