• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.41.1-41.1
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• 2018

We introduce a current status and future plans of Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet) microlensing experiments, which include an observational strategy, pipeline, event-finder, and collaborations with Spitzer. The KMTNet experiments were initiated in 2015. From 2016, KMTNet observes 27 fields including 6 main fields and 21 subfields. In 2017, we have finished the DIA photometry for all 2016 and 2017 data. Thus, it is possible to do a real-time DIA photometry from 2018. The DIA photometric data is used for finding events from the KMTNet event-finder. The KMTNet event-finder has been improved relative to the previous version, which already found 857 events in 4 main fields of 2015. We have applied the improved version to all 2016 data. As a result, we find that 2597 events are found, and out of them, 265 are found in KMTNet-K2C9 overlapping fields. For increasing the detection efficiency of event-finder, we are working on filtering false events out by machine-learning method. In 2018, we plan to measure event detection efficiency of KMTNet by injecting fake events into the pipeline near the image level. Thanks to high-cadence observations, KMTNet found fruitful interesting events including exoplanets and brown dwarfs, which were not found by other groups. Masses of such exoplanets and brown dwarfs are measured from collaborations with Spitzer and other groups. Especially, KMTNet has been closely cooperating with Spitzer from 2015. Thus, KMTNet observes Spitzer fields. As a result, we could measure the microlens parallaxes for many events. Also, the automated KMTNet PySIS pipeline was developed before the 2017 Spitzer season and it played a very important role in selecting the Spitzer target. For the 2018 Spitzer season, we will improve the PySIS pipeline to obtain better photometric results.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.37-44
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• 2016

The Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet) is a wide-field photometric system installed by the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI). Here, we present the overall technical specifications of the KMTNet observation system, test observation results, data transfer and image processing procedure, and finally, the KMTNet science programs. The system consists of three 1.6 m wide-field optical telescopes equipped with mosaic CCD cameras of 18k by 18k pixels. Each telescope provides a 2.0 by 2.0 square degree field of view. We have finished installing all three telescopes and cameras sequentially at the Cerro-Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile, the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) in South Africa, and the Siding Spring Observatory (SSO) in Australia. This network of telescopes, which is spread over three different continents at a similar latitude of about -30 degrees, enables 24-hour continuous monitoring of targets observable in the Southern Hemisphere. The test observations showed good image quality that meets the seeing requirement of less than 1.0 arcsec in I-band. All of the observation data are transferred to the KMTNet data center at KASI via the international network communication and are processed with the KMTNet data pipeline. The primary scientific goal of the KMTNet is to discover numerous extrasolar planets toward the Galactic bulge by using the gravitational microlensing technique, especially earth-mass planets in the habitable zone. During the non-bulge season, the system is used for wide-field photometric survey science on supernovae, asteroids, and external galaxies.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.159-168
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• 2011

We constructed two test server systems for KMTNet data management. One is the photometry database server which is optimized for stable operation, and the other is the photometric data process server which is optimized for fast I/O between devices. The performances of servers and data storage units were tested using various methods. Database upload was also checked using five different methods. From tests, we concluded that the most efficient method to upload photometric data processing results to database is the use of three nodes with job scheduler under the InnoDB engine. In this study we provide the test results for prototype servers for KMTNet data management.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.70.2-70.2
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• 2018

KMTNet에서는 프로젝트의 소개와 운영현황 등 파악하기 위해 웹서비스를 운영하고 있다. 홈페이지(http://kmtnet.kasi.re.kr; 국문, 영문)에는 최신 뉴스와 공지사항, 실시간 모니터링 영상 및 기상정보, 관측일정, 관측자료 공개, 활용성과 등을 게시 하였고, 관측 결과와 운영 정보 관리를 위해서 모니터링 홈페이지(kmtnet-monitor)를 제작하였다. KMTNet은 남반구 3개 관측소에 상주하는 현지 관측자에 의해 관측이 이루어지기 때문에, 국내 연구자가 남반구 관측소 현황을 파악할 수 있는 모니터링 시스템이 필수적이다. 웹서비스에 실시간 기상과 관측자료 전송속도를 함께 표시하여 관측 진행 여부를 확인할 수 있으며, 관측일지를 데이터베이스화하여 망원경/카메라/관측돔의 이상 유무, 관측 현황, 기상/시상 통계 등으로 활용하고 있다. 여기서는 지금까지 개발한 웹 서비스를 소개하고 앞으로 관측소 운영에 유용한 정보와 웹 서비스의 발전 방향에 대해 논의하고자 한다.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.35-41
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• 2016

We have constructed a wide-field photometric survey system called as the Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet) in 2015. It consists of three 1.6 m optical telescopes equipped with mosaic CCD cameras. Four 9k CCDs were installed on the focal plane of each telescope. In this paper, we present the crosstalk analysis of the KMTNet mosaic CCD images. The crosstalk victims caused by bright sources were visible at eight sub-images obtained through different readout ports of each CCD. The crosstalk coefficients were estimated to be several tens of $10^{-4}$ in maximum, differing from sub-image to sub-image, and the non-linearity effect certainly appeared at the victims made from saturated sources. We developed software functions to correct the crosstalk effect of the KMTNet CCD images. The software functions showed satisfying results to remove clearly most of the crosstalk victims and have been implemented in the KMTNet image processing pipeline since 2015 September.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.61.3-61.3
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• 2019

We report the status of KMTNet (Korea Microlensing Telescope Network) microlensing. From KMTNet event-finder, we are annually detecting over 2500 microlensing events. In 2018, we have carried out a real-time alert for only the Northern bulge fields. It was very helpful to select Spitzer targets. Thanks to the real-time alert, KMT-only events for which OGLE and MOA could not detect have been largely increased. The KMTNet event-finder and alert-finder algorithms are being upgraded every year. From these, we found 18 exoplanets and various interesting events, such as an exomoon-candidate, a free-floating candidate, and brown dwarfs, which are very difficult to be detected by other techniques including radial velocity and transit. In 2019, the KMTNet alert will be available in real-time for all bulge fields. As before, we will continue to collaborate with Spitzer team to measure the microlens parallaxes, which are required for estimating physical parameters of the lens. Thus, the KMTNet alert will be helpful to select Spitzer targets again. Also we plan to do follow-up observations for high-magnification events to study the planet multiplicity function. The KMTNet alert will play an important role to do follow-up observations for high-magnification events. Also, we will search for free-floating planets with short timescale (< 3 days) to study the planet frequency in our Galaxy.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.53.2-53.2
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• 2018

We present newly discovered dwarf galaxy candidates in deep and wide-field images of NGC 1291 obtained with KMTNet. Through a visual inspection, we find ~ 13 candidates, for which central surface brightness ranges from ${\mu}_{0,R}{\sim}22.5$ to $26.5mag\;arcsec^{-1}$. Adopting the distance to NGC 1291, the candidate dwarfs are brighter than $M_R=-12.5mag$ and their effective radii range from 350 pc to 1.4 kpc. Structural and photometric properties of dwarf candidates near NGC 1291 appears to be consistent with those of ordinary dwarf galaxies in nearby galaxies. We conduct the imaging simulation in order to find an optimal way to detect dwarf galaxies in KMTNet images and to test the completeness of our detection algorithm. We plan to apply this method to deep KMTNet images of other nearby galaxies obtained through KMTNet Nearby Galaxy Survey (KNGS).

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.57.2-57.2
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• 2015

We have proposed a deep observing program to survey more than 3,000 sq. degree of southern sky with the KMTNet telescopes to search for ultra-faint dwarf galaxies. Recently, the test observations for our survey were made in B, V, R, I-band. We will report the performance of the KMTNet camera system and our detailed strategy in both of observations and analysis for the three-year survey.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.65.1-65.1
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• 2010

한국천문연구원은 2009년부터 지구형 외계행성을 검출하기위한 외계행성 탐색시스템(KMTNet: Korea Microlensing Telescope Network) 개발 사업을 수행하고 있다. KMTNet은 칠레, 호주, 남아프리카 공화국에 설치할 광시야 망원경으로 은하 중심부를 24시간 연속관측을 하고 600GB/1일의 관측 자료가 산출된다. 이 발표에서는 KMTNet에 필요한 데이터베이스의 사양을 설명하고 실제 관측 자료를 이용하여 자료 표출 방법 및 최적의 성능을 얻기 위한 실험 결과 등을 제시한다.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.122.1-122.1
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• 2011

We propose a program of conducting research of young supernovae in nearby galaxies using the KMTNet facilities. Thanks to the wide field ($2^{\circ}{\times}2^{\circ}$) with multiple filters and the continuous sky coverage using the three 1.6 m telescopes, the KMTNet can provide an unprecedented opportunity for studying supernovae. The primary program is twofold: it can be used as a discovery facility of young supernovae and also as a facility providing multi-band photometric data of unprecedentedly high cadence for supernovae light curves.