We investigate the diffusion process of Thomson-scattered line photons in both real space and frequency space through a Monte Carlo approach. The emission source is assumed to be monochromatic and point-like embedded at the center of a free electron region in the form of a sphere and a slab. In the case of a spherical region, the line profiles emergent at a location of Thomson optical depth τTh from the source exhibit the full width of the half maximum σλ ≃ τ 1.5 Th . In the slab case, we focus on the polarization behavior where the polarization direction flips from the normal direction of the slab to the parallel as the slab optical depth τTh increases from τTh ≪ 1 to τTh ≫ 1. We propose that the polarization flip to the parallel direction to the slab surface in optically thick slabs is attributed to the robustness of the Stokes parameter Q along the vertical axis with respect to the observer’s line of sight whereas randomization dominates the remaining region as τTh increases. A brief discussion on the importance of our study is presented.

In this paper, we present observations of the Space Radiation Detectors (SRDs) onboard the Next Generation Small Satellite-1 (NEXTSat-1) satellite. The SRDs, which are a part of the Instruments for the study of Stable/Storm-time Space (ISSS), consist of the Medium-Energy Particle Detector (MEPD) and the High-Energy Particle Detector (HEPD). The MEPD can detect electrons, ions, and neutrals with energies ranging from 20 to 400 keV, and the HEPD can detect electrons over an energy range from 0.35 to 2 MeV. In this paper, we report an event where particle flux enhancements due to substorm injections are clearly identified in the MEPD A observations at energies of tens of keV. Additionally, we report a specific example observation of the electron distributions over a wide energy range in which we identify electron spatial distributions with energies of tens to hundreds of keV from the MEPD and with energy ranging up to a few MeV from the HEPD in the slot region and outer radiation belts. In addition, for an ~1.5-year period, we confirm that the HEPD successfully observed the well-known outer radiation belt electron flux distributions and their variations in time and L shell in a way consistent with the geomagnetic disturbance levels. Last, we find that the inner edge of the outer radiation belt is mostly coincident with the plasmapause locations in L, somewhat more consistent at subrelativistic energies than at relativistic energies. Based on these example events, we conclude that the SRD observations are of reliable quality, so they are useful for understanding the dynamics of the inner magnetosphere, including substorms and radiation belt variations.

We develop the tissue-equivalent proportional counter (TEPC) type’s space radiation dosimeter to measure in-situ aviation radiation. That was originally developed as a payload of small satellite in the low-earth orbit. This dosimeter is based on a TEPC. It is made of an A-150 tissue-equivalent plastic shell of an internal diameter of 6 cm and a thickness of 0.3 cm. TEPC is filled with pure propane at 13.9 torrs to simulate a cell diameter of 2 μm. And the associated portable and low power electronics are also implemented. The verification experiments have been performed by the calibration experiments at ground level and compared with Liulin observation at aircraft altitude during the flight between Incheon airport (ICN) and John F. Kennedy airport (JFK). We found that the TEPC dosimeter can be used as a monitor for space radiation dosimeter at aviation altitude based on the verification with Liulin observation.

There has been increasing necessity of more precise prediction and measurements of aviation radiation in Korea. For our air crew and passengers’ radiation safety, we develop our own radiation prediction model of KREAM. In this paper, we validate the KREAM model based on comparison with Liulin observations. During early three months of this year, we perform total 25 experiments to measure aviation radiation exposure using Liulin-6K in commercial flights. We found that KREAM’s result is very well consistent with Liulin observation in general. NAIRAS shows mostly higher results than Liulin observation, while CARI-6M shows generally lower results than the observations. The percent error of KREAM compared with Liulin observation is 10.95%. In contrast, the error for NAIRAS is 43.38% and 22.03% for CARI-6M. We found that the increase of the altitude might cause sudden increase in radiation exposure, especially for the polar route. As more comprehensive and complete analysis is required to validate KREAM’s reliability to use for the public service, we plan to expand these radiation measurements with Liulin and Tissue Equivalent Proportional Counter (TEPC) in the near future.

We present proton-induced single event effects (SEEs) and γ-ray-induced total ionizing dose (TID) data for 1 Gbit lowpower double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory (LPDDR SDRAM) fabricated on a 5 μm epitaxial layer (54 nm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology). We compare our radiation tolerance data for LPDDR SDRAM with those of general DDR SDRAM. The data confirms that our devices under test (DUTs) are potential candidates for space flight applications.

A newly designed Tissue Equivalent Proportional Counter (TEPC) has been developed for the CubeSat mission, SIGMA (Scientific cubesat with Instruments for Global Magnetic field and rAdiation) to investigate space radiation. In order to test the performance of the TEPC, we have performed heavy ion beam experiments with the Heavy Ion Medical Accelerator in Chiba (HIMAC), Japan. In space, human cells can be exposed to complex radiation sources, such as X-ray, Gamma ray, energetic electrons, protons, neutrons and heavy charged particles in a huge range of energies. These generate much a larger range of Linear Energy Transfer (LET) than on the ground and cause unexpected effects on human cells. In order to measure a large range of LET, from 0.3 to 1,000 keV/μm, we developed a compact TEPC which measures ionized particles produced by collisions between radiation sources and tissue equivalent materials in the detector. By measuring LET spectra, we can easily derive the equivalent dose from the complicated space radiation field. In this HIMAC experiment, we successfully obtained the linearity response for the TEPC with Fe 500 MeV/u and C 290 MeV/u beams and demonstrated the performance of the active radiation detector.

It is well known that the space radiation dose over the polar route should be carefully considered especially when the space weather shows sudden disturbances such as CME and flares. The National Meteorological Satellite Center (NMSC) and Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) recently established a basis for a space radiation service for the public by developing a space radiation prediction model and heliocentric potential (HCP) prediction model. The HCP value is used as a critical input value of the CARI-6 and CARI-6M programs, which estimate the aviation route dose. The CARI-6/6M is the most widely used and confidential program that is officially provided by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The HCP value is given one month late in the FAA official webpage, making it difficult to obtain real-time information on the aviation route dose. In order to overcome this limitation regarding time delay, we developed a HCP prediction model based on the sunspot number variation. In this paper, we focus on the purpose and process of our HCP prediction model development. Finally, we find the highest correlation coefficient of 0.9 between the monthly sunspot number and the HCP value with an eight month time shift.

Next Generation Small Satellite-1 (NEXTSat-1) is scheduled to launch in 2017 and Instruments for the Study of Space Storm (ISSS) is planned to be onboard the NEXTSat-1. High Energy Particle Detector (HEPD) is one of the equipment comprising ISSS and the main objective of HEPD is to measure the high energy particles streaming into the Earth radiation belt during the event of a space storm, especially, electrons and protons, to obtain the flux information of those particles. For the design of HEPD, the Geometrical Factor was calculated to be 0.05 to be consistent with the targets of measurement and the structure of telescope with field of view of 33.4° was designed using this factor. In order to decide the thickness of the detector sensor and the classification of the detection channels, a simulation was performed using GEANT4. Based on the simulation results, two silicon detectors with 1 mm thickness were selected and the aluminum foil of 0.05 mm is placed right in front of the silicon detectors to shield low energy particles. The detection channels are divided into an electron channel and two proton channels based on the measured LET of the particle. If the measured LET is less than 0.8 MeV, the particle belongs to the electron channel, otherwise it belongs to proton channels. HEPD is installed in the direction of 0°,45°,90° against the along-track of a satellite to enable the efficient measurement of high energy particles. HEPD detects electrons with the energy of 0.1 MeV to several MeV and protons with the energy of more than a few MeV. Thus, the study on the dynamic mechanism of these particles in the Earth radiation belt will be performed.

This paper describes an experimental approach to evaluate the effective doses of space radiations at high-altitude by combining the measured data from the Liulin-6K spectrometer loaded onto the air-borne RC-800 cockpit and the calculated data from CARI-6M code developed by FAA. In this paper, 15 exposed dose experiments for the flight missions at a highaltitude above 10 km and 3 experiments at a normal altitude below 4 km were executed over the Korean Peninsula in 2012. The results from the high-altitude flight measurements show a dramatic change in the exposed doses as the altitude increases The effective dose levels (an average of 15.27 μSv) of aircrew at the high-altitude are an order of magnitude larger than those (an average of 0.30 μSv) of the normal altitude flight. The comparison was made between the measure dose levels and the calculated dose levels and those were similar each other. It indicates that the annual dose levels of the aircrew boarding RC- 800 could be above 1 mSv. These results suggest that a proper procedure to manage the exposed dose of aircrew is required for ROK Air Force.

There has been a rapid increase of the concern on the space radiation effect on pilots, crew and passengers at the commercial aircraft altitude (~ 10 km) recently. It is because domestic airline companies, Korean Air and Asiana Airlines have just begun operating the polar routes over the North Pole since 2006 and 2009 respectively. CARI-6 and CARI-6M are commonly used space radiation estimation programs which are provided officially by the U.S. federal aviation administration (FAA). In this paper, the route doses and the annual radiation doses for Korean pilots and cabin crew were estimated by using CARI-6M based on 2012 flight records. Also the modeling concept was developed for our own space radiation estimation program which is composed of GEANT4 and NRLMSIS00 models. The GEANT4 model is used to trace the incident particle transports in the atmosphere and the NRLMSIS00 model is used to get the background atmospheric densities of various neutral atoms at the aircraft altitude. Also presented are the results of simple integration tests of those models and the plan to include the space weather variations through the solar proton event (SPE) prediction model such as UMASEP and the galactic cosmic ray (GCR) prediction model such as Badhwar-O’Neill 2010.

Tissue equivalent proportional counter (TEPC) can measure the Linear Energy Transfer (LET) spectrum and calculate the equivalent dose for the complicated radiation field in space. In this paper, we developed and characterized a TEPC for radiation monitoring in International Space Station (ISS). The prototype TEPC which can simulate a 2 μm of the site diameter for micro-dosimetry has been tested with a standard alpha source (241Am, 5.5 MeV). Also, the calibration of the TEPC was performed by the 252Cf neutron standard source in Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS). The determined calibration factor was kf = 3.59×10-7 mSv/R.