The Balloon-borne Investigation of Temperature and Speed of Electrons in the corona (BITSE) mission, performed by KASI and NASA, used a high-altitude scientific balloon. The purpose of BITSE was to investigate the scientific feasibility of electron temperature and velocity measurements in the solar corona using wavelength-dependent polarization brightness differences. KASI was responsible for developing the command and data handling (C&DH) system, including the main electronics unit and flight software (FSW). Here, we introduce the development of C&DH system of BITSE and describe the ground integration and test and flight operations. The main electronics unit was built using an industrial-grade modular system in customized enclosures that withstood the operating environment. The FSW was developed using the core Flight System (cFS), an open-source software framework developed by NASA and used in several successful space missions. BITSE was launched at Fort Sumner, New Mexico, USA, on September 18, 2019. It observed the solar corona for approximately 4 hours at an altitude of approximately 40 km and collected 16,000 solar corona images. This study could provide guidelines for developing the C&DH system for future balloon missions.

We investigate 20 post-coronal mass ejection (CME) blobs formed in the post-CME current sheet (CS) that were observed by K-Cor on 2017 September 10. By visual inspection of the trajectories and projected speed variations of each blob, we nd that all blobs except one show irregular \zigzag" trajectories resembling transverse oscillatory motions along the CS, and have at least one oscillatory pattern in their instantaneous radial speeds. Their oscillation periods are ranging from 30 to 91 s and their speed amplitudes from 128 to 902 kms􀀀1. Among 19 blobs, 10 blobs have experienced at least two cycles of radial speed oscillations with dierent speed amplitudes and periods, while 9 blobs undergo one oscillation cycle. To examine whether or not the apparent speed oscillations can be explained by vortex shedding, we estimate the quantitative parameter of vortex shedding, the Strouhal number, by using the observed lateral widths, linear speeds, and oscillation periods of the blobs. We then compare our estimates with theoretical and experimental results from MHD simulations and uid dynamic experiments. We nd that the observed Strouhal numbers range from 0.2 to 2.1, consistent with those (0.15{3.0) from uid dynamic experiments of blu spheres, while they are higher than those (0.15{0.25) from MHD simulations of cylindrical shapes. We thus nd that blobs formed in a post-CME CS undergo kinematic oscillations caused by uid dynamic vortex shedding. The vortex shedding is driven by the interaction of the outward-moving blob having a blu spherical shape with the background plasma in the post-CME CS.

The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) has been developing a next-generation coronagraph (NGC) in cooperation with NASA to measure the coronal electron density, temperature, and speed simultaneously, using four different optical filters around 400 nm. KASI organized an expedition to demonstrate the coronagraph measurement scheme and the instrumental technology during the 2017 total solar eclipse (TSE) across the USA. The observation site was in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, USA. We built an eclipse observation system, the Diagnostic Coronal Experiment (DICE), composed of two identical telescopes to improve the signal-to-noise ratio. The observation was conducted at four wavelengths and three linear polarization directions in the limited total eclipse time of about 140 seconds. We successfully obtained polarization data for the corona but we were not able to obtain information on the coronal electron temperature and speed due to the low signal-to-noise ratio of the optical system and strong emission from prominences located at the western limb. In this study, we report the development of DICE and the observation results from the eclipse expedition. TSE observation and analysis with our self-developed instrument showed that a coronagraph needs to be designed carefully to achieve its scientific purpose. We gained valuable experience for future follow-up NASA-KASI joint missions: the Balloon-borne Investigation of the Temperature and Speed of Electrons in the Corona (BITSE) and the COronal Diagnostic EXperiment (CODEX).

A coelostat is often used for solar observations, because it corrects the image rotation auto- matically by guiding sunlight into a fixed telescope with two plane mirrors. For the purposes of education and spectroscopic observation, the solar group at Seoul National University (SNU) plans to develop the SNU coelostat (SNUC) and install it in the SNU Astronomical Observatory (SAO). Requirements of the SNUC are < 1′′ positioning accuracy with 30 cm beam size on the entrance pupil in the compact dome. To allow for installation in the small dome, we design a compact slope type coelostat with a 45 cm primary plane mirror and a 39 cm secondary plane mirror. The motion of the SNUC is minimized by fixing the position of the slope frame. Numerical simulations of the available observational time of the designed coelostat shows that the sun can be observed ay all times from June to early August and at least three hours in other months. Since the high accuracy driving motors installed in the SNUC can be affected by external environment factors such as humidity and temperature variations, we design a prototype to test the significance of these effects. The prototype consists of a 20 cm primary plane mirror, a 1 m slope rail, a direct drive motor, a ballscrew, a linear motion guide, an AC servo motor, a reduction gear and a linear encoder. We plan to control and test the accuracy of the prototype with varying atmospheric conditions in early 2019. After testing the prototype, the SNUC will be manufactured and installed in SAO by 2020.

In a solar coronagraph, the most important component is an occulter to block the direct light from the disk of the sun. Because the intensity of the solar outer corona is 10−6 to 10−10 times of that of the solar disk (I⊙), it is necessary to minimize scattering at the optical elements and diffraction at the occulter. Using a Fourier optic simulation and a stray light test, we investigated the performance of a compact coronagraph that uses an external truncated-cone occulter without an internal occulter and Lyot stop. In the simulation, the diffracted light was minimized to the order of 7.6 × 10−10 I⊙ when the cone angle c was about 0.39◦. The performance of the cone occulter was then tested by experiment. The level of the diffracted light reached the order of 6 × 10−9 I⊙ at c = 0.40◦. This is sufficient to observe the outer corona without additional optical elements such as a Lyot stop or inner occulter. We also found the manufacturing tolerance of the cone angle to be 0.05◦, the lateral alignment tolerance was 45 μm, and the angular alignment tolerance was 0.043◦. Our results suggest that the physical size of coronagraphs can be shortened significantly by using a cone occulter.