• Journal of Space Technology and Applications
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• 제4권3호
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• pp.210-219
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• 2024

This study investigates various ionospheric and thermospheric disturbances around the Korean Peninsula during the G5 geomagnetic storm occurred on May 10, 2024. This level of storm was the first of its magnitude in 21 years, resulting in auroras visible even in South Korea and severe space weather worldwide. The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute has been providing ionospheric information over Korea through total electron content (TEC) measurements from the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and monitoring the impact of ionospheric disturbances on GNSS signals by operating five GNSS scintillation stations in Korea and other countries. During this storm period, large amplitudes of TEC variations were observed over South Korea, along with anomalous TEC enhancements accompanied by strong scintillations at night and persistent TEC depletion on the dayside during the storm's recovery phase. Such daytime TEC depletion disturbances are quite rare, typically occurring only a few times throughout the 11-year solar cycle. While the association of persistent TEC depletion during the daytime with neutral composition disturbances was identified through observations, the causes of TEC enhancement and strong scintillation at night remain unclear. We speculate that the uplift of the ionosphere by storm-induced electric fields is responsible for the TEC enhancement and scintillation, but this hypothesis requires validation based on additional observational data.

• Bulletin of the Korean Space Science Society
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• 한국우주과학회 2010년도 한국우주과학회보 제19권1호
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• pp.30.2-30.2
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• 2010

It is a mistaken impression that the midlatitude ionosphere was a very stable region with well-known morphology and physical mechanism. However, the large disturbances of midlatitude ionospheric contents in response to global thermospheric changes during geomagnetic storms are reported in recent studies using global GPS TEC map and space-born thermospheric UV images, and its importance get higher with the increasing application areas of space navigation systems and radio communication which are mostly used in the midlatitudes. Positive and negative storm phases are used to describe increase and decrease of ionospheric electron density. Negative storms result generally from the enhanced loss rate of electron density according to the neutral composition changes which are initiated by Joule heating in high-latitudes during geomagnetic storms. In contrast, positive ionospheric storms have not been well understood because of rare measurements to explain the mechanisms. The large enhancements of ground-based GPS TEC in Korea were observed on 8 and 10 November 2004. The positive ionospheric storm was continued except for dawn on 8 November, and its maximum value is ~65 TECU of ~3 times compared with the monthly mean TEC values. The other positive phase on 10 November begin to occur in day sector and lasted for more than 6 hours. The O/N2 ratios from GUVI/TIMED satellite show ~1.2 in northern hemisphere and ~0.3 in southern hemisphere of the northeast Asian sector on 8 and 10 November. We suggest the asymmetric features of O/N2 ratios in the Northeast Asian sector may play an important role in the measured GPS TEC enhancements in Korea because global thermospheric wind circulation can globally change the chemical composition during geomagnetic storms.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• 제26권4호
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• pp.467-478
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• 2009

The super-geomagnetic storms called 2003 Halloween event globally occurred during the period of 29 through 31 which are the following days when the solar flares of X18 class exploded on 28 October 2003. The S4 index from GPS signal strength and the peak electron density ($NmF_2$) from GPS tomography method are analyzed according to the date. The occurrences of the cycle slip and scintillation in the GPS signals are 1,094 and 1,387 on 28 and 29 October, respectively and these values are higher than 604 and 897 on 30 and 31 October. These mean the ionospheric disturbances are not always generated by the period of geomagnetic storm. Therefore, GPS S4 index is useful to monitor the ionospheric disturbances. Behaviors of ionospheric electron density estimated from GPS tomography method are analyzed with the date. At UT = 18 hr, the maximum $NmF_2$ is shown on 28 October. It agrees with $NmF_2$ variation measured from Anyang ionosonde, and the GPS signal are better condition on 30 and 31 October than 28 October. In conclusion, GPS signal condition is relation with geomagnetic activities, and depend upon the variation of the electron density. We will study the long-term data to examine the relationship between the GPS signal quality and the electron density as the further works.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• 제34권6_4호
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• pp.1531-1544
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• 2018

We detected the coseismic ionospheric disturbance generated by the earthquakes of magnitude 5.0 and greater in Korean Peninsula. We considered the seismic events such as Gyeongju earthquake in September 2016 with magnitude 5.8, the Pohang earthquake in November 2017 with magnitude 5.4, and the underground nuclear explosion from North Korea in September 2017 with magnitude 5.7. Although all GPS stations were not detected, the ionospheric disturbance induced by these earthquakes occurred approximately 10-30 minutes and 40-60 minutes after the events. We inferred that the time difference within each variation is due to the different focal depth and the geometry of epicenter, satellite, and GPS station. In the case of the Gyeongju earthquake, the earthquake had relatively deeper depth than the other earthquakes. However, the seismic magnitude was bigger and it occurred at nighttime when the ionospheric activity was stable. So we could observe such anomalous variations. It is considered that the ionospheric disturbance caused by the difference in velocity of the upward propagating waves generated by earthquake appears more than once. Our results indicate that the detection of ionospheric disturbances varies depending on the geometry of the GPS station, satellite, and epicenter or the detection method and that the apparent growth of amplitude in the time series varies depending on the focal depth or the site-satellite-epicenter geometry.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• 제21권1호
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• pp.91-98
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• 2005

On board satellite magnetometer measures all possible magnetic components, such as the core and crustal components from the inner Earth, and magnetospheric, ionospheric and' its coupled components from the outer Earth. Due to its dipole and non-dipole features, separation of the respective component from the measurements is most difficult unless the comprehensive knowledge of each field characteristics and the consequent modeling methods are solidly constructed. Especially, regional long wavelength magnetic signals of the crust are strongly masked by the main field and dynamic external field and hence difficult to isolate in the satellite measurements. In particular, the un-modeled effects of the strong auroral external fields and the complicated behavior of the core field near the geomagnetic poles conspire to greatly reduce the crustal magnetic signal-to-noise ratio in the polar region relative to the rest of the Earth. We can, however, use spectral correlation theory to filter the static lithospheric and core field components from the dynamic external field effects that are closely related to the geomagnetic storms affecting ionospheric current disturbances. To help isolate regional lithospheric anomalies from core field components, the correlations between CHAMP magnetic anomalies and the pseudo-magnetic effects inferred from satellite gravity-derived crustal thickness variations can also be exploited, Isolation of long wavelengths resulted from the respective source is the key to understand and improve the models of the external magnetic components as well as of the lower crustal structures. We expect to model the external field variations that might also be affected by a sudden upheaval like tsunami by using our algorithm after isolating any internal field components.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• 제25권1호
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• pp.33-42
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• 2008

By analyzing the observations from a number of ground- and space-based instruments, including ionosonde, magnetometers, and ACE interplanetary data, we examine the response of the ionospheric TEC over Korea during 2003 magnetic storms. We found that the variation of vertical TEC is correlated with the southward turning of the interplanetary magnetic field $B_z$. It is suggested that the electric fields produced by the dynamo process in the high-latitude region and the prompt penetration in the low- latitude region are responsible for TEC increases. During the June 16 event, dayside TEC values increase more than 15%. And the ionospheric F2-layer peak height (hmF2) was ${\sim}300km$ higher and the vertical $E{\times}B$ drift (estimated from ground-based magnetometer equatorial electrojet delta H) showed downward drift, which may be due to the ionospheric disturbance dynamo electric field produced by the large amount of energy dissipation into high-latitude regions. In contrast, during November 20 event, the nightside TEC increases may be due to the prompt penetration westward electric field. The ionospheric F2-layer peak height was below 200km and the vertical $E{\times}B$ drift showed downward drift. Also, a strong correlation is observed between enhanced vertical TEC and enhaaced interplanetary electric field. It is shown that, even though TEC increases are caused by the different processes, the electric field disturbances in the ionosphere play an important role in the variation of TEC over Korea.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• 제24권3호
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• pp.263-266
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• 2002

Gravity waves have been searched for with a new all-sky camera system over Korean Peninsular. The all-sky camera consists of a 37mm/F4.5 Mamiya fisheye lens with a 180 dog field of view, interference filters and a 1024 by 1024 CCD camera. The all-sky camera has been tested near Daejeon city, and moved to Mt. Bohyun where the largest astronomical telescope is operated in Korea. A clear wave pattern was successfully detected in OH filter images over Mt. Bohyun on July 18, 2001, indicating that small scale coherent gravity waves perturbed OH airglow near the mesopause. Other wave features are since then observed with Na 589.8nm and OI 630.0nm filters. Since a Japanese all-sky camera network has already detected traveling ionospheric disturbances (TID) over the northeast-southwest range of Japanese islands, we hope our all-sky camera extends the coverage of the TID's observations to the west direction. We plan to operate our all-sky camera all year around to study seasonal variation of wave activities over the mid-latitude upper atmosphere.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• 제33권4호
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• pp.273-278
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• 2016

December 2009 was one of the quietest (monthly Ap=2) months over the last eight decades. It provided an excellent opportunity to study the day-to-day variability of the F2 layer with the smallest contribution due to geomagnetic activity. With this aim, we analyze hourly values of the F2-layer critical frequency (foF2) recorded at 18 ionosonde stations during the magnetically quietest (Ap=0) days of the month. The foF2 variability is quantified as the relative standard deviation of foF2 about the mean of all the "zero-Ap" days of December 2009. This case study may contribute to a more clear vision of the F2-layer variability caused by sources not linked to geomagnetic activity. In accord with previous studies, we find that there is considerable "zero-Ap" variability of foF2 all over the world. At most locations, foF2 variability is presumably affected by the passage of the solar terminator. The patterns of foF2 variability are different at different stations. Possible causes of the observed diurnal foF2 variability may be related to "meteorological" disturbances transmitted from the lower atmosphere or/and effects of the intrinsic turbulence of the ionosphere-atmosphere system.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• 제15권spc2호
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• pp.45-52
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• 2000

Four plasma instruments are currently under development for KAISTSAT-4 (K-4) which is scheduled for launch in 2002. They are the Solid-State Telescope, Electro-Static Analyzer, Langmuir Probe, and the Scientific Magnetometer, that will respectively allow in-situ detection of high energy and low energy components of auroral particles, ionospheric thermal electrons, and magnetic field disturbances. These instruments, together with the Far-ultraviolet IMaging Spectrograph, will provide micro-scale physics of Earth's polar ionosphere with detailed spectral information that has not been previously achieved with other space missions. In this paper, we review the concept of the four space plasma instruments as well as the anticipated results from the instruments.