• 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.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.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.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.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.221.1-221.1
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• 2012

The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) is developing three 1.6m optical telescopes with $18k{\times}18k$ mosaic CCD cameras. These telescopes will be installed and operated at Chile, South Africa, and Australia for Korea Micro-lensing Telescope Network (KMTNet) project. The main scientific goal of the project is to discover earth-like extra-solar planets using the gravitational micro-lensing technique. To achieve the goal, each telescope at three sites will continuously monitor the specific region of Galactic bulge with 2.5 minute cadence for five years. Assuming 12 hour observation in maximum for a night, the amount of 200 GB file storage is required for one night observation at one observatory. If we consider the whole project period and the data processing procedure, a few PB class data storage, high-speed network, and high performance computers are essential. In this presentation, we introduce the KMTNet data management plan that handles gigantic data; raw image collecting, image processing, photometry pipeline, database archiving, and backup.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.57.1-57.1
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• 2015

We will obtain deep wide-field images of the 150-200 nearby bright galaxies in the southern hemisphere, in order to explore the origin of faint extended features in the outer regions of target galaxies. Using KMTNet telescopes, we will take very deep images, spending ~ 4.5 hr for the B and R filters for each object. With this dataset, we will look for diffuse, low-surface brightness structures including outer disks, truncated disks, tidal features/stellar streams, and faint companions.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.62.3-62.3
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• 2019

After first identification of electromagnetic counterpart of gravitational wave source (GW170817), era of multi-messenger astronomy has begun. For specifying coordinate, magnitude, and host galaxy information, optical follow-up observation of GW source becomes important. With following engineering run and O3 run of LIGO and VIRGO starting in March 2019, we present searching strategy for optical counterpart of GW source using KMTNet. 24 hours monitoring system and large field of view (4 square-degree) of KMTNet are advantage to discover a transient like GW event. By performing tiling observation of high probability area in GW localization map, we expect to observe early light-curve of GW optical counterpart. After identification, follow-up observation with various KMTNet bands and other telescopes like Gemini and UKIRT will also be performed. We will study collision mechanism, progenitor, and characteristics of host galaxy using observation data of GW source.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.56.1-56.1
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• 2015

We are at the initial performance-verification phase of our KMTNet Supernova Project (KSP) using the three wide-field telescopes of the KMTNet in the southern hemisphere. The primary science objectives of KSP, which take advantage of its unique 24-hour continuous sky coverage, are to study early (i.e., within a few hours from explosion) and rare/peculiar (e.g. fast decay) supernovae (SNe), SN progenitors, explosion mechanisms, as well as other exotic optical transients. We present the initial status/results of the program, along with the program strategy, science objectives, target fields, and future plan. While the target field selection will be made based on the performance of the system and consideration of various scientific merits, the initial target fields are focused on nearby galaxies with increased cadence and filter coverage.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.44.2-44.2
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• 2017

Multiple stellar systems composed of triple, double+double or double+triple, etc. are very rare and interesting objects for understanding the star formation and dynamical evolution. However, only six systems have been found to be a doubly eclipsing quadruple, which consists of two eclipsing binaries, and four systems to be a triply eclipsing hierarchical triple. Recently, the 15 doubly eclipsing multiple candidates located in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) have been reported by the OGLE project. In order to examine whether these candidates are real multiple systems with eclipsing features, we performed a high-cadence time-series photometry for the LMC using the KMTNet (Korea Microlensing Telescope Network) 1.6 m telescopes in three site (CTIO, SAAO, and SSO) during 2016-2017. The KMTNet data will help reveal the photometric properties of the multiple-star candidates. In this paper, we present the VI light curves and their preliminarily analyses for 12 of the 15 eclipsing systems in the LMC, based on our KMTNet observations and the OGLE-III survey data from 2001-2009.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.56.2-56.2
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• 2015

The KMTNet Supernovae Project utilizes the large $2^{\circ}{\times}2^{\circ}$ field of view of the three KMTNet telescopes to search and monitor supernovae, especially early ones, and other optical transients. A key component of the project is to build a data pipeline with a descent latency and an early alerting system that can handle the large volume of the data in an efficient and a prompt way, while minimizing false alarms, which casts a significant challenge to the software development. Here we present the current status of their development. The pipeline utilizes a difference image analysis technique to discover candidate transient sources after making correction of image distortion. In the early phase of the program, final selection of transient sources from candidates will mainly rely on multi-filter, multi-epoch and multi-site screening as well as human inspection, and an interactive web-based system is being developed for this purpose. Eventually, machine learning algorithms, based on the training set collected in the early phase, will be used to select true transient sources from candidates.