• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• 제32권1호
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• pp.13-19
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• 2015

Plasma bubbles that occur in the equatorial F-region make up one of the most distinguishing phenomena in the ionosphere. Bubbles represent plasma depletions with respect to the background ionosphere, and are the major source of electron density irregularities in the equatorial F-region. Such bubbles are seen as plasma depletion holes (in situ satellite observations), vertical plumes (radar observations), and emission-depletion bands elongated in the north-south direction (optical observations). However, no technique can observe the whole three-dimensional structure of a bubble. Various aspects of bubbles identified using different techniques indicate that a bubble has a "shell" structure. This paper reviews the development of the concepts of "bubble" and "shell" in this context.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• 제39권2호
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• pp.23-33
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• 2022

Electron density irregularities in the equatorial ionosphere at night are understood in terms of plasma bubbles, which are produced by the transport of low-density plasma from the bottomside of the F region to the topside. Equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs) have been detected by various techniques on the ground and from space. One of the distinguishing characteristics of EPBs identified from long-term observations is the systematic seasonal and longitudinal variation of the EPB activity. Several hypotheses have been developed to explain the systematic EPB behavior, and now we have good knowledge about the key factors that determine the behavior. However, gaps in our understanding of the EPB climatology still remain primarily because we do not yet have the capability to observe seed perturbations and their growth simultaneously and globally. This paper reviews the occurrence climatology of EPBs identified from observations and the current understanding of its driving mechanisms.

• 한국우주과학회:학술대회논문집(한국우주과학회보)
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• 한국우주과학회 2003년도 한국우주과학회보 제12권2호
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• pp.81-81
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• 2003

We report the plasma blob events that were observed from KOMPSAT-1 (2250 LT, 685-km altitude) and from DMSP F15 (2130 LT,840-km altitude) in the low-latitude ionosphere. The global distribution of blobs showed a season-longitudinal dependence similar to the distribution of the equatorial plasma bubbles, although they were observed along the ${\pm}$15 dip latitudes. The blobs drifted upward relative to the ambient plasmas, and the electron temperatures and H+ proportions were lower within the blobs compared to those in the background. These characteristics of the plasma blobs are very similar to the characteristics of the equatorial plasma bubbles. Then, we suggest that the blobs were originated from the lower altitudes by the mechanism that drives an upward drift of the plasma bubbles. The blob events did not occur in a correlated way with the magnetic activity or daily variation of the solar activity.

• 한국측량학회지
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• 제30권6_2호
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• pp.607-613
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• 2012

Ionospheric anomaly is one of the major error sources which deteriorate the GNSS performance. In the equatorial region, effects of the ionospheric plasma bubbles are of great interest because they are pretty common phenomena, especially in the period of the high solar activity. In order to evaluate the GNSS performance under circumstance of the bubbles, an ionospheric scintillation monitor has been developed and installed in Bangkok, Thailand. Furthermore, a model simulating the ionospheric delay and scintillation due to the bubbles has been developed. Based on these developments, the effects of the simulated plasma bubbles are analyzed and their agreement with the real observation is demonstrated. An availability degradation of the GPS ground based augmentation system (GBAS) caused by the bubbles is exampled in details. Finally, an integrated GPS/INS approach based on the Doppler frequency is proposed to remedy the deterioration.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• 제39권3호
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• pp.87-98
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• 2022

The Far-UltraViolet (FUV) imager onboard the Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) spacecraft provides two-dimensional limb images of oxygen airglow in the nightside low-latitude ionosphere that are used to determine the oxygen ion density. As yet, no FUV limb imager has been used for climatological analyses of Equatorial Plasma Bubbles (EPBs). To examine the potential of ICON/FUV for this purpose, we statistically investigate small-scale (~180 km) fluctuations of oxygen ion density in its limb images. The seasonal-longitudinal variations of the fluctuation level reasonably conform to the EPB statistics in existing literature. To further validate the ICON/FUV data quality, we also inspect climatology of the ambient (unfiltered) nightside oxygen ion density. The ambient density exhibits (1) the well-known zonal wavenumber-4 signatures in the Equatorial Ionization Anomaly (EIA) and (2) off-equatorial enhancement above the Caribbean, both of which agree with previous studies. Merits of ICON/FUV observations over other conventional data sets are discussed in this paper. Furthermore, we suggest possible directions of future work, e.g., synergy between ICON/FUV and the Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) mission.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• 제33권1호
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• pp.13-19
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• 2016

In recent years, there has been renewed activity in the study of local plasma density enhancements in the low latitude F region ionosphere (low latitude plasma blobs). Satellite, all-sky airglow imager, and radar measurements have identified the characteristics of these blobs, and their coupling to Equatorial Plasma Bubbles (EPBs). New information related to blobs has also been obtained from the Communication/Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS) satellite. In this paper, we briefly review experimental, theoretical and modeling studies related to low latitude plasma blobs.

• 한국우주과학회:학술대회논문집(한국우주과학회보)
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• 한국우주과학회 2009년도 한국우주과학회보 제18권2호
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• pp.38.3-39
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• 2009

Equatorial Plasma Bubble (herafter, EPB) is a common feature in low-latitude F-region during the night time. Since EPB causes significant impacts on the satellite communication and navigation systems, its accurate forecast is highly demanded by the GNSS users. Thus, further understanding of these features and their configuration is a challenging issue in space weather studies. The day-to-day variability of the plasma bubble activity was investigated by analyzing the TIMED/GUVI, ROCSAT-1, DMSP, and CHAMP satellite data. The pre-reversal enhancement (PRE) is known as the most important single parameter for the onset of plasma bubbles but we do not know yet to what extent the day-to-day variability of the bubble activity can be attributed to the PRE. We obtained the magnitude of the PRE from ROCSAT-1 and the occurrence of bubbles in relation to the PRE was investigated by using the coincident observations of EPBs from TIMED/GUVI, DMSP, and CHAMP. By conducting one-to-one comparison of the PRE characteristics with the EPB occurrence we examined the role of the PRE in the onset of EPBs.

• 천문학회보
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• 제46권1호
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• pp.58.4-59
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• 2021

This presentation introduces Korea's SNIPE (Small scale magNespheric and Ionospheric Plasma Experiment) mission, formation flying CubeSat constellation. Observing particles and waves on a single satellite suffers from inherent space-time ambiguity. To observe spatial and temporal variations of the micro-scale plasma structures on the topside ionosphere, four 6U CubeSats (~ 10 kg) will be launched into a polar orbit of the altitude of ~500 km in 2021. The distances of each satellite will be controlled from 10 km to more than 100 km by formation flying algorithm. The SNIPE mission is equipped with identical scientific instruments, solid-state telescope, magnetometer, and Langmuir probe. All the payloads have a high temporal resolution (sampling rates of about 10 Hz). Iridium modules provide an opportunity to upload changes in operational modes when geomagnetic storms occur. SNIPE's observations of the dimensions, occurrence rates, amplitudes, and spatiotemporal evolution of polar cap patches, field-aligned currents (FAC), radiation belt microbursts, and equatorial and mid-latitude plasma blobs and bubbles will determine their significance to the solar wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere interaction and quantify their impact on space weather.

• 우주기술과 응용
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• 제2권2호
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• pp.104-120
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• 2022

도요샛(Small Scale magNetospheric and Ionospheric Plasma Experiment, SNIPE)의 과학임무는 전리권 상층부 소규모 플라즈마 구조의 공간적 시간적 변화를 관찰하는 것이다. 이를 위해 4개의 6U 큐브위성(10 kg)이 고도 약 500 km 극궤도로 발사될 예정이며, 상호 위성 간 거리는 편대 비행 알고리즘에 의해 수 10 km에서 수 1,000 km 이상으로 제어된다. 운영 초기에는 4기의 위성이 같은 궤도 평면에 위치하는 종대비행을 하다가 경도상에서 나란히 배치되는 횡대비행으로 전환하여 4기의 서로 다른 지점에서 공간적인 변화를 관측하게 된다. 도요샛에는 입자 검출기, 랑뮈어 탐침, 자력계로 구성된 우주날씨 관측 장비가 각 위성에 탑재된다. 모든 관측기는 10 Hz 이상의 높은 시간 분해능을 가지며 큐브위성에 최적화 설계되었다. 이 외에도 이리디듐 통신 모듈은 지자기 폭풍이 발생할 때 작동 모드를 변경하기 위한 명령을 업로드할 수 있는 기회를 제공한다. 도요샛은 극 지역 플라즈마 밀도 급상승, 필드 정렬 전류, 고에너지 전자의 국소 영역 침투, 적도 및 중위도 플라즈마 거품의 발생 및 시공간적 진화에 대한 관찰을 수행할 예정이며, 이를 통해 태양풍이 우주날씨에 어떠한 영향을 미치는지 탐구하게 된다. 도요샛은 2023년 상반기 러시아 소유즈-2에 의해 카자흐스탄 바이코누르에서 발사될 예정이다.