• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.39 no.3
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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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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.245-250
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• 2017

As a part of collaborative efforts to understand ionospheric irregularities, the Korea ionospheric scintillation sites (KISS) network has been built based on global positioning system (GPS) receivers with sampling rates higher than 1 Hz. We produce the rate of TEC index (ROTI) to represent GPS TEC fluctuations related to ionospheric irregularities. In the KISS network, two ground-based GPS sites at Kiruna (marker: KIRN; geographic: $67.9^{\circ}$ N, $21.4^{\circ}$ E; geomagnetic: $65.2^{\circ}$ N) and Chuuk (marker: CHUK; geographic: $7.5^{\circ}$ N, $151.9^{\circ}$ E; geomagnetic: $0.4^{\circ}$ N) were selected to evaluate the ROTI value for ionospheric irregularities during the occurrence of the 2015 St. Patrick's Day storm. The KIRN ROTI values in the aurora region appear to be generally much higher than the CHUK ROTI values in the EIA region. The CHUK ROTI values increased to ~0.5 TECU/min around UT=13:00 (LT=23:00) on March 16 in the quiet geomagnetic condition. On March 17, 2015, CHUK ROTI values more than 1.0 TECU/min were measured between UT=9:00 and 12:00 (LT=19:00 and 22:00) during the first main phase of the St. Patrick's Day storm. This may be due to ionospheric irregularities by increased pre-reversal enhancement (PRE) after sunset during the geomagnetic storm. Post-midnight, the CHUK ROTI showed two peaks of ~0.5 TECU/min and ~0.3 TECU/min near UT=15:00 (LT=01:00) and UT=18:00 (LT=04:00) at the second main phase. The KIRN site showed significant peaks of ROTI around geomagnetic latitude=$63.3^{\circ}$ N and MLT=15:40 on the same day. These can be explained by enhanced ionospheric irregularities in the auroral oval at the maximum of AE index

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.25 no.1
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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.

• Journal of Positioning, Navigation, and Timing
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.113-119
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• 2023

Satellite navigation systems, with the exception of the GLObal NAvigation Satellite System (GLONASS), adopt ionosphere models and provide ionospheric coefficients to single-frequency users via navigation messages to correct ionospheric delay, the main source of positioning errors. A Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) mostly has its own ionospheric models: the Klobuchar model for Global Positioning System (GPS), the NeQuick-G model for Galileo, and the BeiDou Global Ionospheric delay correction Model (BDGIM) for BeiDou satellite navigation System (BDS)-3. On the other hand, a Regional Navigation Satellite System (RNSS) such as the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) and BDS-2 uses the Klobuchar Model rather than developing a new model. QZSS provides its own coefficients that are customized for its service area while BDS-2 slightly modifies the Klobuchar model to improve accuracy in the Asia-Pacific region. In addition, BDS broadcasts multiple ionospheric parameters depending on the satellites, unlike other systems. In this paper, we analyzed the different ionospheric models of GPS, QZSS, and BDS in Korea. The ionospheric models of QZSS and BDS-2, which are based in Asia, reduced error by at least 25.6% compared to GPS. However, QZSS was less accurate than GPS during geomagnetic storms or at low latitude. The accuracy of the models according to the BDS satellite orbit was also analyzed. The BDS-2 ionospheric model showed an error reduction of more than 5.9% when using GEO coefficients, while in BDS-3, the difference between satellites was within 0.01 m.