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We report the development of solar flux receivers operating at 2.8 GHz to monitor solar radio activity. Radio waves from the sun are amplified, filtered, and then transmitted to a power meter sensor without frequency down-conversion. To measure solar flux, a calibration scheme is designed with a noise source, an ambient load, and a hot load at 100 ℃. The receiver is attached to a 1.8 m parabolic antenna in Icheon, owned by National Radio Research Agency, and observation is being conducted during day time on a daily basis. We compare the solar fluxes measured for last seven months with solar fluxes obtained by DRAO in Penticton, Canada, and by the Hiraiso solar observatory in Japan, and finally establish equations to convert observed flux to the so-called Penticton flux with an accuracy better than 3.2 sfu.

Intensity interferometry, based on the Hanbury Brown-Twiss effect, is a simple and inexpensive method for optical interferometry at microarcsecond angular resolutions; its use in astronomy was abandoned in the 1970s because of low sensitivity. Motivated by recent technical developments, we argue that the sensitivity of large modern intensity interferometers can be improved by factors up to approximately 25,000, corresponding to 11 photometric magnitudes, compared to the pioneering Narrabri Stellar Interferometer. This is made possible by (i) using avalanche photodiodes (APD) as light detectors, (ii) distributing the light received from the source over multiple independent spectral channels, and (iii) use of arrays composed of multiple large light collectors. Our approach permits the construction of large (with baselines ranging from few kilometers to intercontinental distances) optical interferometers at the cost of (very) long-baseline radio interferometers. Realistic intensity interferometer designs are able to achieve limiting R-band magnitudes as good as ~14, sufficient for spatially resolved observations of main-sequence O-type stars in the Magellanic Clouds. Multi-channel intensity interferometers can address a wide variety of science cases: (i) linear radii, effective temperatures, and luminosities of stars; (ii) mass-radius relationships of compact stellar remnants; (iii) stellar rotation; (iv) stellar convection and the interaction of stellar photospheres and magnetic fields; (v) the structure and evolution of multiple stars; (vi) direct measurements of interstellar distances; (vii) the physics of gas accretion onto supermassive black holes; and (viii) calibration of amplitude interferometers by providing a sample of calibrator stars., Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables; to appear in JKAS (received June 11, 2014; accepted October 18, 2014)

We study the physical and chemical properties of the molecular clump hosting a young stellar cluster, IRAS 20160+3636, which is believed to have formed via the “collect and collapse” process. Physical parameters of the UC Hii region associated with the embedded cluster are measured from the radio continuum observations. This source is found to be a typical Galactic UC Hii region, with a B0.5 type exciting star, if it is ionized by a single star. We derive a CN/HCN abundance ratio larger than 1 over this region, which may suggest that this clump is being affected by the UV radiation from the Hii region.

We develop a radio receiver system operating at � � 1.3 mm for the 6 m telescope of Seoul Radio Astronomy Observatory. It consists of a dual polarization receiver, a couple of IF processing units, two FFT spectrometers, and associated software. By adopting sideband-separating superconductor mixers with image band terminated to waveguide load at 4.2 K, we achieve TRX � 100 K and Tsys less than 150 K at best weather condition over 210-250 GHz frequency range. The intermediate frequency signal of 3.5-4.5 GHz is down converted to 0-1 GHz and fed into the FFT spectrometers. The spectrometer covers 1 GHz bandwidth with a spectral resolution of 61 KHz. Test observations are conducted toward several radio sources to evaluate the performance of the system. Aperture and beam efficiencies measured by observing planets are found to be typically 44 � 59% and 47 � 61%, respectively over the RF band, which are consistent with those measured at 3 mm band previously.

As a continuation of a previous work by Park et al. (2006), we have developed a two-element radio interferometer that can measure both the phase and amplitude of a visibility function. Two small radio telescopes with diameters of 2.3 m are used as before, but this time an external reference oscillator is shared by the two telescopes so that the local oscillator frequencies are identical. We do not use a hardware correlator; instead we record signals from the two telescopes onto a PC and then perform software correlation. Complex visibilities are obtained toward the sun at λ = 21 em, for 24 baselines with the use of the earth rotation and positional changes of one element, where the maximum baseline length projected onto UV plane is ~ 90λ. As expected, the visibility amplitude decreases with the baseline length, while the phase is almost constant. The image obtained by the Fourier transformation of the visibility function nicely delineates the sun, which is barely resolved due to the limited baseline length. The experiment demonstrates that this system can be used as a "toy" interferometer at least for the education of (under)graduate students.

We report the development of a semi-VLBI observation system operating at 21 cm and present the measurement of visibility function toward the sun using this system. The system consists of two 2.3 meter antennas with a maximum separation of 35 meter, a conventional high speed data acquisition system, and a set of programs for software correlation. Since two local oscillators of receiver modules are independent, data had to be fringe-fitted to yield the visibility amplitude. It is found that the visibility amplitude decreases and then bounces back as baseline increases. We confirm that solar disk with brighter limb best explains the measured visibility amplitude.

In an attempt to investigate star formation activity and statistical properties of clumps of high Galactic latitude clouds (HLCs), we mapped the Polaris Flare region, PF121.3+25.5, in J

We carried out CO survey toward IR-excess clouds using SRAO 6-m telescope in search of molecular . These clouds, which show far-infrared excess over what is expected from HI column density, are considered to be candidates of molecular clouds. In order to find new high Galactic latitude clouds, we made mapping observations for 14 IR-excess clouds selected from Reach et al.(1998) in J

On-The-Fly (OTF) observation method is developed for the efficient use of 6 M radio telescope at Seoul Radio Astronomy Observatory (SRAO). This technique, in which data and information of antenna position are recorded synchronously while driving a telescope regularly and rapidly across a field, provides more efficient use of telescope time and better calibration of the acquired data than the traditional point-to-point observation method does. For the realization of the method, we (1) added RT-Linux modules to the existing operating system, (2) replaced digital voltmeter with voltage-to-frequency converter, and (3) modified many SRAO observation programs. By observing Moon and G78.2+2.7 using this method and comparing them with previous observations, we verify the successful operation and efficiency of the OTF observation mode.

We present the results of VLA (1,1) and (2,2) line observations of the young-stellar object (YSO) IRAS 19550+3248. The integrated intensity map of the (1,1) line shows that there are two ammonia cores in this region; core A which is associated with the YSO, and core B which is diffuse and located at the northeast of core A. Core A is compact and elongated along the east-west direction (0.07 pc0.05 pc) roughly perpendicular to the molecular outflow axis. Core B is diffuse and extended (0.18 pc0.07 pc). (2,2) line is detected only toward core A, which indicates that it is hotter (~ 15 K), presumably due to the heating by the YSO. The (1,1) line toward core A is wide () and appears to have an anomalous intensity ratio of the inner satellite hyperfine lines. The large line width may be attributed to the embedded YSO, but the hyperfine anomaly is difficult to explain. We compare the results of observations with those of previous CS observations and find that the CS emission is detected only toward core A and is much more extended than the emission.

We present a progress report on HCN(1-0) line observations toward starless cores to probe inward motions. We have made a single pointing survey toward the central regions of 85 starless cores and performed mapping observations of 6 infall candidate starless cores. The distributions of the velocity difference between HCN(1-0) hyperfine lines and the optically thin tracer (1-0) are significantly skewed to the blue, meaning that HCN(1-0) frequently detects inward motions. Their skewness to the blue is even greater than that of CS(2-1) Lee et al., possibly implying more infall occurrence than CS(1-0). We identify 19 infall candidates by using several characteristics illustrating spectral infall asymmetry seen in HCN(1-0) hyperfine lines, CS(3-2), CS(2-1), and observations. The HCN(1-0) F(O-l) with the least optical depth usually shows a similar intensity distribution to that of which closely traces the density distribution of the cores, indicating that HCN(1-0) is less chemically affected and so believed to reflect kinematics occurring in rather inner regions of the cores. Detailed radiative transfer model fits of the spectra are underway to analyze central infall kinematics in starless cores.