• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.59.1-59.1
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• 2019

Immediate vicinity of a supermassive black hole (SMBH) is an important place to test general relativity in strong gravity regime. Also, this is a place where mass accretion and jet formation actively occurs at the centers of active galaxies. Theoretical studies predict presence of bright ring-like emission encircling an accreting SMBH with a diameter of about 5 Schwarzschild radii, and a flux depression at the center (i.e., BH shadow). Direct imaging of the BH shadow is accordingly of great importance in modern astrophysics. However, the angular sizes of the horizon-scale structures are desperately small (e.g., ~40-50 microarcseconds (uas) diameter for the nearest best candidates). This poses serious challenges to observe them directly. Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is a global network of sensitive radio telescopes operating at 230 GHz (1.3 mm), providing ultra-high angular resolution of 20 uas by cutting-edge very long baseline interferometry techniques. With this resolution, EHT aims to directly image the nearest SMBHs; M87 and the galactic center Sgr $A{\ast}$ (~40-50 uas diameters). In Spring 2017, the EHT collaboration conducted a global campaign of EHT and multiwavelength observations of M87 and Sgr $A{\ast}$, with addition of the phased ALMA to the 1.3mm VLBI array. In this talk, I review results from past mm-VLBI and EHT observations, provide updates on the results from the 2017 campaign, and future perspectives.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.315-320
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• 2013

Space geodetic techniques can be used to obtain precise shape and rotation information of the Earth. To achieve this, the representative combination solution of each space geodetic technique has to be produced, and then those solutions need to be combined. In this study, the representative combination solution of very long baseline interferometry (VLBI), which is one of the space geodetic techniques, was produced, and the variations in the position coordinate of each station during 7 years were analyzed. Products from five analysis centers of the International VLBI Service for Geodesy and Astrometry (IVS) were used as the input data, and Bernese 5.0, which is the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) data processing software, was used. The analysis of the coordinate time series for the 43 VLBI stations indicated that the latitude component error was about 15.6 mm, the longitude component error was about 37.7 mm, and the height component error was about 30.9 mm, with respect to the reference frame, International Terrestrial Reference Frame 2008 (ITRF2008). The velocity vector of the 42 stations excluding the YEBES station showed a magnitude difference of 7.3 mm/yr (30.2%) and a direction difference of $13.8^{\circ}$ (3.8%), with respect to ITRF2008. Among these, the 10 stations in Europe showed a magnitude difference of 7.8 mm/yr (30.3%) and a direction difference of $3.7^{\circ}$ (1.0%), while the 14 stations in North America showed a magnitude difference of 2.7 mm/yr (15.8%) and a direction difference of $10.3^{\circ}$ (2.9%).

• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.261-269
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• 2013

This paper describes the design and development of VSI (VLBI standard interface) optical adapter for transmitting VLBI(Very long baseline interferometry) observation data with optical signal. VSI cable comprised of 80-line is being used for observed data transmission with maximum length of 5-meter between playbacks (Mark5B, VERA2000) and raw VLBI data buffer (RVDB), RVDB and VLBI correlation subsystem (VCS) in Daejeon correlator. It has a plan to conduct the data processing for 16-stations and introduce the 14 RVDB systems in near future. And data loss frequently occurred because of trouble of VSI cable MDR80 connector. By considering the data loss by connector error of VSI cable, RVDB system extension plan, effective space usage and long distance data transmission(e-VLBI), the VSI optical adapter was proposed and developed for effectively transmitting and receiving VLBI data through optical signal. In order to confirming the performance of developed VSI optical adapter, the experiments for data transmission was conducted between playback and RVDB system, and confirmed that data transmission was clearly done without any data loss.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.145-152
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• 2010

In this paper, we developed a local oscillator (LO) system of millimeter wave band receiver for radio astronomy observation. We measured the phase and amplitude drift stability of this LO system. The voltage control oscillator (VCO) of this LO system use the 3 mm band Gunn oscillator. We developed the digital phase locked loop (DPLL) module for the LO PLL function that can be computer-controlled. To verify the performance, we measured the output frequency/power and the phase/amplitude drift stability of the developed module and the commercial PLL module, respectively. We show the good performance of the LO system based on the developed PLL module from the measured data analysis. The test results and discussion will be useful tutorial reference to design the LO system for very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) receiver and single dish radio astronomy receiver at the 3 mm frequency band.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.28.3-29
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• 2017

We present the results of very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations of gamma-ray bright blazar S5 0716+714 using the Korean VLBI Network (KVN) at the 22, 43, 86, and 129 GHz bands, which are part of the KVN key science program known as the Interferometric Monitoring of Gamma-ray Bright AGNs (iMOGABA). Multi-frequency VLBI observations were conducted in 29 sessions from January 16, 2013 to March 1, 2016. The source was detected and imaged in all available frequency bands. For all observed epochs, the source is compact on the milliarcsecond (mas) scale, yielding a compact VLBI core dominating the synchrotron emission on the mas scale. Based on the multi-wavelength data at 15 and 230 GHz, we found that the source shows multiple prominent enhancements of the flux density at the centimeter (cm) and millimeter (mm) wavelengths, with mm enhancements leading cm enhancements with a time lag of $18{\pm}5$ days. Turnover frequency is found to vary over our observations between 22 to 69GHz. Taking into account the synchrotron self-absorption model of the relativistic jet in S5 0716+714, we estimated the magnetic field strength in the mas emission region to be 0.4-66 mG during the observing period, finding that the magnetic field strength is strongly correlated with the turnover frequency and the relatively strong magnetic field (e.g., B > 40 mG) is correlated with flux enhancements at mm wavelengths (e.g., 86 GHz).

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.11-19
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• 2016

This paper presents the results of test observations toward a point source, 4C39.25, for observation modes with various bandwidths and numbers of IF streams in order to examine a reliability of the Daejeon hardware correlator performance for correlating VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometry) data obtained with the several observation modes of the KVN (Korean VLBI Network). We used a DiFX software correlator (DiFX) as a reference, for investigating the output visibilities from the Daejeon corelator. It is found that the band shapes of the output visibilities from two correlators are similar to each other and the correlated flux density for each baseline obtained from the Daejeon hardware correlator is lower by 3 - 7% than that from the DiFX. The flux difference is attributed to the limitation of FPGA resources and the difference of fringe rotation algorithm of the Daejeon hardware correlator. The conversion factor, 0.93 ~ 0.97, is proposed for future correlation with the Daejeon hardware correlator.

• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.13-20
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• 2017

In this paper, we evaluate the basic test results of the 32 Gbps observational equipment introduced as the back-end system for the wideband VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometry) observation of KVN (Korean VLBI Network). Radio astronomers want to make a large radio telescope that has excellent performance in order to observe the superfine structure of a celestial body, but a lot of money is needed. Therefore, in order to increase the sensitivity, the performance improvement of the receiving system and the method of observing the wide frequency bandwidth are introduced. To do this, we adopted a wideband sampling method for converting analog signals to digital with ultra-fast speeds and a wideband sampler for performing digital filtering in order to observe a wide observational frequency bandwidth. The wideband sampler (OCTAD-K) supports up to 16 Gsps-2bits sampling and supports a variety of observational bandwidth using digital filtering techniques. In particular, it is designed to support KVN's 4-frequency simultaneous observation system and VERA(VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry)'s 2-beam observation system. It can also support polKVN(Korean VLBI Network), KaVA(KVN and VERA Array), 32Gbps Direct Sampler, Digital Filter, Widebandarization observations and supports the standard VDIF(VLBI Data Interchange Format) format of observed data. In this paper, the performance of the system and the problem solving are described in detail after performing the factory inspection and field test before the system is introduced.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.337-344
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• 2006

KVN simulation, which is focused on evaluating the impacts of KVN to geodetic VLBI network, was performed. The KVN is under construction with three radio telescopes VLBI system for radio astronomy and space geodesy. To distinguish the impacts of KVN on global and local scale networks, we designed two different sizes of VLBI networks, namely, KVN-Asia and KVN-Pacific. While the former consisted of Far East Asia region VLBI stations, the latter consisted of pacific region VLBT stations. The primary purpose of our simulation is quantitative evaluation of KVN impacts before and after the participation of KVN in the previous two virtual networks. We selected two different sets of parameters to be estimated in the simulation as indices of evaluating estimation precision: station coordinates and EOPs. The station coordinates are evaluating index for KVN-Asia and the EOPs are another evaluating index for KVN-Pacific. From the simulation results of comparisons between evaluating indexes, 50% and 20% of maximum improvements for KVN-Asia and KVN-Pacific were anticipated respectively. We expect that the space geodetic use of KVN will be focused on the several promising research fields which are proposed through the simulation results.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.46.2-46.2
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• 2017

Atmospheric propagation effects at millimeter wavelengths can significantly alter the phases of radio signals and reduce the coherence time, putting tight constraints on high frequency Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations. In previous works it has been shown that non-dispersive (e.g. tropospheric) effects can be calibrated with the frequency phase transfer (FPT) technique. The coherence time can thus be significantly extended. Ionospheric effects, which can still be significant, remain however uncalibrated after FPT, as well as the instrumental effects. In this work, we implement a further phase transfer between two FPT residuals (i.e. so-called FPT2) to calibrate the ionospheric effects based on their frequency dependence. We show that after FPT2, the coherence time at 3 mm can be further extended beyond 8 hours, and the residual phase errors can be sufficiently canceled by applying the calibration of another source, which can have a large angular separation from the target (> $20{\circ}$). Calibrations for all-sky distributed sources with a few calibrators are also possible after FPT2. One of the strengths and uniqueness of this calibration strategy is the suitability for high frequency all-sky survey observations including very weak sources. We discuss the introduction of a pulse calibration system in the future to calibrate the remaining instrumental effects and allowing the possibility of imaging the source structure at high frequencies with FPT2, where all phases are fully calibrated without involving any sources other than the target itself.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
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• v.1
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• pp.529-534
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• 2006

New geocentric geodetic datum has recently been realized in Korea, Korean Geodetic Datum 2002- KGD2002, to overcome problems due to the existing Tokyo datum, which had been used in this country since early 20th century. This transition will support modern surveying techniques, such as Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) and ensures that spatial data is compatible with other international systems. For this realization, very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations were initially carried out in 1995 to determine the coordinates of the origin of KGD2002 based on the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF). Continuous GPS observations were collected from 14 reference stations across Korea to compute the coordinates of 1st order horizontal geodetic control points. During the campaign, GPS observations were also collected at about 9,000 existing geodetic control points. In 2006, network adjustment with all data obtained using GPS and EDM since 1975 has been performed under the condition of fixing the coordinates of GPS continuous observation stations to compute coordinate measurements of the 2nd and 3rd geodetic control points. This paper describes the GPS campaigns which have been undertaken since 1996 and details of the network adjustment schemes. This is followed