• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.67.4-67.4
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• 2019

We present preliminary results of our long-term (2009-2017) observing campaign using the NASA IRTF at Mauna Kea, to obtain $2-5{\mu}m$ spectroscopy of ~200 red point sources in the line of sight to the Galactic center. Point sources in our sample were selected from the mid-infrared images of the Spitzer Space telescope, and include candidate massive young stellar objects, which have previously been identified from our Spitzer/IRS spectroscopy. We show high foreground extinction of these sources from deep $3.1{\mu}m$ H2O ice and aliphatic hydrocarbon absorption features, suggesting that they are likely located in the central 300 pc region of the Galactic center. While many sources reveal photospheric $2.3{\mu}m$ gas CO absorption, few of them clearly indicate $3.54{\mu}m$ CH3OH ice absorption, possibly indicating a large dust column density intrinsic to a massive young stellar object.

• Atmosphere
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.57-67
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• 2011

Aerosol lidar ratio (extinction-to-backscatter ratio) at 532 nm was determined using 4-year measurements of elastic-backscatter lidar and sky radiometer at Seoul National University of Seoul, Korea. The mean lidar ratio (with standard deviation) based on 4 years of measurements is found to be $61.7{\pm}16.5$ sr, and weak seasonal variations are noted with a maximum in JJA ($68.1{\pm}16.8$ sr) and a minimum in DJF ($57.2{\pm}17.9$ sr). The lidar ratios for clean, dust, and polluted conditions are estimated to be $45.0{\pm}9.5$ sr, $51.7{\pm}13.7$ sr, and $62.2{\pm}13.2$ sr, respectively. While the lidar ratio for the polluted condition is appears to be consistent with previous studies, clean and dust conditions tend to have larger ratios, compared to previous estimates. This discrepancy is thought to be mainly due to the anthropogenic aerosols existing throughout the year around Seoul, which may cause increased lidar ratios even for clean and dust conditions.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.97-103
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• 2002

We have mapped 1 $deg^2$ region toward a high latitude cloud MBM 40 in the J = 1 - 0 transition of $^{12}CO$ and $^{13}CO$, using the 3 mm SIS receiver on the 14 m telescope at Taeduk Radio Astronomy Observatory. We used a high resolution autocorrelator to resolve extremely narrow CO linewidths of the molecular gas. Though the linewidth of the molecular gas is very narrow (FWHP < 1 km $s^{-1}$ ), it is found that there is an evident velocity difference between the middle upper part and the lower part of the cloud. Their spectra for both of $^{12}CO$ and $^{13}CO$ show blue wings, and the position-velocity map shows clear velocity difference of 0.4 km $s^{-1}$ between two parts. The mean velocity of the cloud is 3.1 km $s^{-1}$. It is also found that the linewidths at the blueshifted region are broader than those of the rest of the cloud. We confirmed that the visual extinction is less than 3 magnitude, and the molecular gas is translucent. We discussed three mass estimates, and took a mass of 17 solar masses from CO integrated intensity using a conversion factor $2.3 {\times} 10^{20} cm^{-2} (K\;km s^{-1})^{-1}$. Spatial coincidence and close morphological similarity is found between the CO emission and dust far-infrared (FIR) emission. The ratio between the 100 f.Lm intensity and CO integrated intensity of MBM 40 is 0.7 (MJy/sr)/(K km $s^{-1}$), which is larger than those of dark clouds, but much smaller than those of GMCs. The low ratio found for MBM 40 probably results from the absence of internal heating sources, or significant nearby external heating sources.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.68.1-68.1
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• 2010

We focus on two Galactic molecular clouds that are located in wholly different environments and both are observed by FIMS instrument onboard STSAT-1. The Draco cloud is known as a translucent molecular cloud at high Galactic latitude. The FUV spectra show important ionic lines of C IV, Si IV+O IV], Si II* and Al II, indicating the existence of hot and warm interstellar gases in the region. The enhanced C IV emission inside the Draco cloud region is attributable to the turbulent mixing of the interacting cold and warm/hot media, which is supported by the detection of the O III] emission line and the $H{\alpha}$ feature in this region. The Si II* emission covers the remainder of the region outside the Draco cloud, in agreement with previous observations of Galactic halos. Additionally, the H2 fluorescent map is consistent with the morphology of the atomic neutral hydrogen and dust emission of the Draco cloud. In the Aquila Rift region near Galactic plane, FIMS observed that the FUV continuum emission from the core of the Aquila Rift suffers heavy dust extinction. The entire field is divided into three sub-regions that are known as the- "halo," "diffuse," and "star-forming" regions. The "diffuse" and "star-forming" regions show various prominent H2 fluorescent emission lines, while the "halo" region indicates the general ubiquitous characteristics of H2. The CLOUD model and the FUV line ratio are included here to investigate the physical conditions of each sub-region. Finally, the development of an infrared imaging system known as the MIRIS instrument onboard STSAT-3 is briefly introduced. It can be used in WIM studies through $Pa{\alpha}$ observations.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.59.1-59.1
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• 2013

Type Ia supernovae (SNe) are providing the most conclusive evidence for accelerating universe with dark energy in observational cosmology. In these investigations, look-back time evolution of SNe luminosity is regarded as negligible on the basic assumption. However, several recent works present some systematic differences among hosts which have different characteristics of stellar population. For more direct investigation, we are proceeding with our YONSEI (YOnsei Nearby Supernovae Evolution Investigation) project. Only early-type hosts in our catalogue were chosen in order to estimate the luminosity-weighted mean age and metallicity directly using Single Stellar Population (SSP) models and ignore the effect from the dust extinction. Observations using low-resolution spectrographs are still in progress at Las Campanas Observatory with 2.5m telescope and at McDonald Observatory with 2.7m telescope. We have thus far obtained spectra for 30 early-type hosts. After weak emission line correction, Lick/IDS absorption-line indices are measured and YEPS spectroscopic evolution model was applied to determine mean population ages and metallicities. Our preliminary results show that SNe Ia hosted in older galaxies seem to be brighter at 1.4 - 3 sigma levels, however, more observations and analyses are still needed to confirm this correlation.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.35.1-35.1
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• 2013

By probing nuclear regions and overall properties of AGN hosts as a function of their environments, we aim to observationally examine how AGN activities are related to their surroundings. We have selected eight representative AGN hosts in the Virgo cluster, including seven cluster members (M49, M60, M84, M87, NGC 4435, NGC 4526, NGC 4636) and one galaxy that is likely to be background (NGC 4261) but still close enough to be studied in high resolution. The selected galaxies are located in a range of density regions showing various morphology in 1.4 GHz continuum. High resolution observations with the KVN allow us to access the inner region of the AGN without suffering from dust extinction and synchrotron self-absorption. Since half of our targets are weak to be detected at K-band within its coherence time, we applied phase referencing (fast antenna position switching) to calibrate fast atmospheric phase fluctuations. We successfully detected relatively bright AGNs, such as M87, M84 and NGC4261, but no detection signature was found to the other members of the sample. In this talk, we will present our first results from our KVN observations, while we will discuss in detail the applied technique and our immediate future plans.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.313-315
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• 2017

We present physical properties of $24{\mu}m$ galaxies detected by AKARI and Spitzer and their evolution between redshifts 0.4 < z < 2. Using multi-wavelength data from X-ray to radio observations in NEP Deep Field (for AKARI) and Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Field (for Spitzer), we derive photometric redshift, stellar mass, star-formation rate (SFR), dust extinction magnitude and rest-frame luminosities/colors of the $24{\mu}m$ galaxies from photometric SED fitting. We infer the SFRs from rest-frame ultraviolet luminosity and total infrared luminosity calibrated against Herschel photometric data. For both survey fields, we obtain complete samples with stellar mass of > $10^{10}M_{\odot}$ and SFR of > $30M_{\odot}/yr$ up to z = 2. We find that specific SFRs evolves with redshift at all stellar masses in NON-power-law galaxies (non-PLGs) as star-formation dominant luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs). The correlations between specific SFR and stellar mass in the Spitzer and AKARI galaxy samples are well consistent with trends of the main sequence galaxies. We also discuss nature of PLGs and their evolution.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.87-91
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• 2017

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are considered to be carriers of the unidentified infrared bands, which are ubiquitously observed in the Universe. PAHs are mainly formed around evolved carbon-rich stars and injected into interstellar space. Planetary nebulae (PNe), a late stage of low- and intermediate stellar mass evolution, are suitable objects to investigate the formation and evolution of PAHs. The shortest PAH feature is located in $3.3{\mu}m$, which is important to examine the excitation and size distribution of PAHs. While the number of samples had been limited before, the high sensitivity of AKARI /IRC has drastically increased the number of samples. We obtained the $2-5{\mu}m$ spectra of Galactic PNe with AKARI /IRC and compiled a near-infrared spectral catalog, containing 73 PNe. We investigate the detection rate and the evolution of the PAH features. The characteristics of the catalog are illustrated and the origin of the evolution of the PAH features is discussed.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.70.2-70.2
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• 2012

The night sky in Mongolia is known to be one of the darkest and clearest in Asia. The seasonal dust winds from the Gobi desert, however, might degrade the transparency of the night sky and affect the photometrical quality for astronomical research. In this poster, we present the preliminary results of the first transparency measurement of the night sky in Monglia. The observations are done at Zuunmod located at 25 km south from Ulaanbaatar in 2011 October 26-31. We used a CCD camera (QSI 583s) attached to an 80 mm aperture refractor telescope (William Optics Zentih Star 80 II ED APO). A new supernova, SN2011fe, and a young stellar object, HBC 722, were monitored in order to measure the extinction coefficients. These values in Mongolia are compared with those in other astronomical observatory.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.71.1-71.1
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• 2010

We present the FUV continuum map of The Taurus-Auriga-Perseus complex, which is one of the largest local association of dark clouds. The map is well consistent with the dust extinction and the CO emission map of the T-P-A region. The region is divided into 3 sub-regions by diffuse FUV intensities and the spectra of each region imply that the radiation field due to the Per OB2-association can be a main source of the H2 fluorescent emission of the nearby cloud region. We used the PDR H2 model, named CLOUD, developed by van Dishoeck &Black for the sake of comparing our results to the H2 model.