Issue5, March 2015
We hope the AOSWA framework helps
our activities for improving space weather activities.
http://aoswa.nict.go.jp/

In this Issue...

AOSWA
Link

KASI’s contribu ons to Space Weather
Kyungsuk Cho,
Group leader Solar and Space Weather Group,
Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, Korea

An Introduc on to ANGKASA, UKM

Nurul Hajijah Hair & Mardina AbdullahSpace Science Centre (ANGKASA), Institute of Climate Change,
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia.

Internship Trainee Program at NICT

Suhaila M Buhari
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia , Malaysia

United Na ons / Japan Workshop on Space Weather
Akimasa Yoshikawa ,Lecturer
International Center for Space Weather Science and Education, ICSWSE
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Kyushu University

Domes c Collabora ve Symposia
supported by the Solar‐Terrestrial Environment Laboratory,
Nagoya University, Japan

Your contribution is always welcome!
If you should wish to submit an article, you are greatly appreciated. The articles should be approximately 500 words and contain either figures or pictures. Also It is available for use as a means of
spreading information, such as upcoming conference and so on. Your feedback is always welcome.
Contact : sw-project-office@mi.nict.go.jp
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KASI’s contributions to Space Weather
over the past 10 years
Kyungsuk Cho,
Group leader Solar and Space Weather Group,
Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, Korea
For the past decade, supported by the Korean gov‐
ernment, the solar and space weather group of Korea
Astronomy and Space Science Ins tute (KASI) has
been researching towards the preven on of hazard‐
ous eﬀects on Korean satellites, the stability of wire‐
less telecommunica ons, and the safety of polarroute avia on. So far, we have collaborated with NJIT
and NASA, and established a Space Weather Predic‐
on Center, with which we have been developing amore advanced models for space weather forecas ng.
Alongside that, we have con nued our research on
solar ac vi es and the Sun‐Earth connec on.
In 2004, KASI ini ated a solar project with NJIT, the
New Jersey Ins tute of Technology. The project, con‐
sis ng of two parts, involved the development of the
Korean Solar Radio Burst Locator, Korea’s first solar
telescope to be able to locate posi on of radio bursts(KSRBL, Fig1a), and the construc on of 1.6 m New So‐
lar Telescope, the world’s largest solar op cal tele‐scope (NST, Fig1b). The project was completed in ear‐ly 2009. The KSRBL and NST have been installed thefollowing year at KASI and the Big Bear Solar Observa‐
tory respec vely. In 2007, the group started a newspace weather project to establish a Korean Space
Weather Predic on Center (Fig1c). The scope of the
project included the extension of the ground observa‐
on system, the construc on of the space weather
database, and the development of predic on models.
Through the project, several space weather products
have been developed, and forecas ng services havebeen provided to a sa sfied domes c clientele such as
Korean Air (Fig1d).

In 2010, KASI turned its main scien fic focus tospace observa on. As a part of the eﬀorts, KASI madean agreement with NASA to set up of the data system
to store, use, and disseminate the Solar Dynamic Ob‐
servatory (SDO) data for the Asian region (Fig 1e). The
SDO center has three subsystems; the first is the datatransfer system (DTS) to transfer SDO data from Stan‐
ford University to KASI via the 10 Gbps GLORIAD net‐
work. The second is the data archive system (DAS) toarchive and manage JP2 data (30 TB since 2010, Sep.)
and Fits data (800 TB since 2012, March) of SDO,
which was designed in considera on of the compa ‐bility and scalability of the system so that we can ex‐
tend its capacity and performance at any me by add‐
ing more storage and cluster gateway, respec vely.
We hope that we will be able to provide free and un‐
fe ered access to the SDO for the AOSWA community
a er developing of various applica ons for data quar‐ry and analysis for space weather. KASI built a 7‐meter
parabolic antenna in 2012 to receive space weather
broadcast data from the Van Allen Probes (VAP) mis‐sion (Fig 1f). KASI u lizes the VAP real me data toforecast space weather, protec ng na onal spaceassets from severe space environment.
KASI pursues interna onal collabora ons in hopesof developing the sciences, services, and technologies
of space weather. We believe, based on our experi‐
ences over the past 10 years, that we may contributeto the future advances of AOSWA.

KASI's instruments for space weather research and forecast2

An Introduction to ANGKASA, UKM
Nurul Hajijah Hair & Mardina AbdullahSpace Science Centre (ANGKASA),
Institute of Climate Change,Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
Malaysia.

HistorySpace Science Centre (ANGKASA) or previously
known as the Ins tute of Space Science (ANGKASA)
was established on 1st August 2003. On 16th Decem‐ber 2013, ANGKASA was merged with 3 other en es,
namely the Ins tute of Climate Change Research(IKP), Earth Observa on Centre (EOC) and ResearchCentre for Tropical Climate Change System (IKLIM)
and was then nestled under the Ins tute of Climate
Change (IPI), Universi Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).

doing mul disciplinary research related to Space Sci‐
ence and Technology.

ANGKASA was founded as a mul disciplinary re‐search centre, conduc ng teaching at the postgradu‐
ate level and research in the field of space science,
space technology, space technology applica ons andspace governance. Our missions are to develop capac‐
ity for space research and industry, to develop spacescience and technology for peaceful applica ons, topromote the importance of space science for na onal
development, and to support the na onal space pro‐grams.

Its research network comprises of studies in thefields of the upper and lower atmospheric layers, cli‐mate change, meteorology, solar radia on impact on
the Earth’s atmosphere (space weather), radio signal
propaga on and the related space engineering as‐pects such as antenna communica on and satellite
technology.

Postgraduate Programs & Research
On 4th October 2010, Malaysia’s Department ofHigher Educa on approved the master’s and doctor‐
ate programs in ANGKASA UKM. Currently, the pro‐grams oﬀered are M. Sc. (Space Science), M. Sc.
(Astronau c), M. Sc. (Space Management and Policy),
Ph. D. (Space Science), Ph. D. (Astronau c), and Ph. D.
(Space Management and Policy). However, ANGKASA
has only been producing students registered under its
M. Sc. (Space Science) program up un l now. Never‐theless, there are also students registered under the
Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment (FKAB)

Figure 1: Research network linkage of ANGKASA UKM

ANGKASA has also been ac vely involved in these ng up of an interna onal network of collabora‐
on to further its research agenda in space science.
ANGKASA has a lot of experience in working with vari‐
ous other research and industrial collaborators
through networking as illustrated in Figure 1.

UKM has also been involved in several microgravity
experiments conducted at the Interna onal Space
Sta on (ISS) in conjunc on with Malaysia’s success insending her first astronaut into space in 2007. Theseexperiments and associated outreach ac vi es wereconducted by researchers from UKM’s Medical Mo‐
lecular Biology Ins tute (UMBI), Faculty of Scienceand Technology, and Faculty of Educa on. It is also
worth no ng that the first Malaysian Astronaut, Dato’
Dr. Sheikh Muzaﬀar is also a Principal Research Fellowof ANGKASA, UKM. Addi onally, in conjunc on with
the UKM In Space program on 20th October 2014, we
had successfully hosted a research discussion on fu‐
ture space research with an Astronaut from Japan,
Chiaki Mukai and representa ve from Japan Aero‐space Explora on Agency (JAXA).

Figure 2: Research discussion on future space research with
Chiaki Mukai and representative from JAXA.
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Facili es
ANGKASA is commi ed in providing facili es and re‐search equipment that are conducive and suppor veof teaching and learning ac vi es. Thus, all staﬀ,
academicians, and students are provided with work‐
place, laboratories, general func on room, mee ng
room and discussion areas which are located at the
Research Complex in UKM, Bangi. These facili escome complete with research equipment such as Ra‐
dio Telescope, Ground Sta on, Network Analyzer,
GNSS Ionospheric Scin lla on and TEC Monitor(GISTM), Very Low Frequency (VLF) Receiver, Anecho‐
ic Chamber, Equinox Telescope and many oth‐ers.Addi onally, ANGKASA has also installed researchequipment outside the main campus such as theTrimble NetR8 with Zephyr Geode c 2 Antenna in
Universi Malaysia Sabah, and the Magne c Data
Acquisi on System (MAGDAS), and GNSS Ionospheric
Scin lla on and TEC Monitor (GISTM) both installedin Langkawi. Meanwhile, we have also installed theTrimble GPS Receiver in Sco Base, Antar ca, and the
GPS Leica System in Husafell.

pected to s mulate the interests of more young
talents in the field of science and technology, par‐cularly in the rapidly advancing scien fic fields
such as space science, where these programs are
not only organised for the university community
but also suitable for the younger genera on fromoutside the university.

Figure 4: 2011 United Nation Human SpaceTechnology Expert Meeting

Figure 5: Presentation given by participants of the2013 Space Weather Innovation Competition

Figure 3: Research Facilities of ANGKASA

Community Ac vi es
In the eﬀort to promote space research and tech‐
nologies, UKM has been ac vely engaged in organ‐
izing a wide‐range of conferences, seminars andworkshops such as the biennial conference, Inter‐na onal Conference on Space Science & Communi‐
ca ons (ICONSPACE), Na onal Astronaut Public
Lecture, ASE Planetary Congress, UKM in Space,
United Na on Human Space Technology Expert
Mee ng, ANGKASA Research Seminar (SPSA), 2013
Space Weather Innova on Compe on and manyothers. Promo onal events such as these are ex‐

ANGKASA was born out of a vision to be a leader inspace science and technology research in Malaysia.
We believe with the strong support from everyone,
ANGKASA will be able to con nuously contribute to
the development of science and technology, not only
academically through its successful graduates, butalso through its scien fic research and remarkable
research publica ons. These eﬀorts are in line withthe university’s mission that prac ces the 5P culture
to be the “Guardian of the Na on” in keeping with itsrole as the Na onal University.
For more informa on on research, postgraduate pro‐grams oﬀered and upcoming interna onal confer‐ence ICONSPACE 2015, kindly visit
h p://www.ukm.my/angkasa.
4Internship Trainee Program at NICT
Overview
NICT accepts competent young researchers and university students from overseas as internship trainee for the
purpose of promo ng the collabora ve researches and establishing the interna onal research networks with
their aﬃliated research organiza ons and universi es.
As a general rule, the candidate has to be recommended by his/her supervisor in the research organiza on or
university.

Training Period
The training period has to be more than one month but not exceeding one year.

Experience in Space Weather Environment lab, NICT
Suhaila M Buhari
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia , Malaysia
I am currently enrolled in a PhD program in Space
Science at Universi Kebangsaan Malaysia. I am
working in Space Science Centre, Ins tute of Climate
Change under the supervision of Prof. Ir. Dr. Mardina
Abdullah. In our group, we are focusing on the iono‐
spheric research using various instruments such as
GNSS Ionospheric Scin lla on and TEC Monitor(GISTM), very low frequency (VLF), GPS receivers andothers. My personal research interest is the observa‐
on of ionospheric irregulari es using high‐density
GPS networks in Southeast Asia (SEA). The GPS net‐
works are the Malaysia Real‐Time Kinema cs GNSS
Network (MyRTKnet), the Sumatran GPS Array(SuGAr), and the Interna onal GNSS Service (IGS)
networks. The high‐density GPS receivers in SEA havean advantage of providing me con nuous represen‐ta on of the ionospheric irregulari es with high spa‐
al resolu on and broad geographical coverage.
While a normal PhD student would spend thewhole study period in their universi es, I was lucky
to have an opportunity to live and work in Japan.
Therefore, I would like to thank NICT for the Intern‐ship Research Fellowship Award that allows me to dopart of my research in Space Environment Infor‐
ma cs Laboratory from 1 April 2014 – 31 March2015. During my stay in NICT, I have learn how to
obtain the spa al structure and temporal evolu onof ionospheric irregulari es using GPS data with thehelp of researchers in NICT and Dr. Yuichi Otsuka
from Nagoya University. I am using NICT cloud com‐
pu ng named Science Cloud to derive total electron
content (TEC) maps from the GPS data. The Science
Cloud environment allows me to use the IDL licenseand large data storage with high speed network. The
first observa on of equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs)

Research discussion with an instructor, Dr.Tsugawa

using the high‐density GPS receivers in Southeast
Asia (SEA) was successfully computed. The result was
published in Buhari et al., (2014), Con nuous genera‐on and two‐dimensional structure of equatorial
plasma bubbles observed by high‐density GPS receiv‐
ers in Southeast Asia, J. Geophys. Res. Space
Physics, 119, doi:10.1002/2014JA020433.
The internship began with the feelings of low self‐
esteem as I am the only student in the laboratory.
However, working in NICT was an incredible learning
process and I gained an overwhelming knowledge
about the ionospheric research. I was also taught
about the solar ac vity and had an opportunity toa end the space weather forecast mee ng that be‐came my daily rou ne in NICT. I have learned a lot
about solar ac vity variability and how does it aﬀect
the ionospheric irregulari es. I became far moreaware of the ionospheric surroundings and the ap‐
propriate parameters to examine the ionosphericirregulari es. Now, I am confident about my data and5the direc on of my future research.
Furthermore, during my internship program in
NICT, I was able to a end an interna onal confer‐ences such as the Japan Geoscience Union 2014 andthe Society of Geomagne sm and Earth, Planetary
and Space Sciences Fall Mee ng 2014 which were
held in Yokohama and Matsumoto, Japan. Besides, I
also a ended the conferences abroad such as the
URSI General Assembly and Scien fic Symposium2014 in Beijing and the AGU Fall Mee ng 2014 in San
Francisco. During the mee ng, I had a chance to in‐teract with many researchers who are doing the ion‐ospheric research from all over the world. Although I
just a beginner in this field, I gained a lot ofknowledge from the discussions that may came fromthe very recent studies.

As I am going to leave Japan soon, I want to thankeveryone in NICT for the most memorable and enjoy‐
able research experiences. I am extremely gratefulfor the opportuni es to work with such amazing andhardworking researchers and co‐workers in Japan.
The knowledge and experience that I received has
been so much more than I expected. For those whohave helped me, I will be forever indebted to you.
May God will repay everyone of you with many
blessings ahead. Thanks everyone!!
I hope NICT will keep on suppor ng and promo ng
the interna onal collabora on on space weather
forecast for opera onal and research in Asia‐Oceania
region. I look forward to contribu ng to the NICT’seﬀort as best I could.

6United Nations / Japan Workshop on Space Weather“Science and Data Products from ISWI Instruments”
March 2 - 6 2015, The Luigans Spa & Resort Fukuoka, Japan
Hosted by theInterna onal Center for Space Weather Science and Educa on of Kyushu University (ICSWSE),
on behalf of the Government of Japan
Co‐sponsored by the
Ministry of Educa on, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (MEXT),
Ministry of Foreign Aﬀairs of Japan (MOFA),
Japan Society for the Promo on of Science (JSPS),
Na onal Ins tute of Informa on and Communica ons Technology (NICT),Interna onal Research Ins tute of Disaster Science of Tohoku University (IRIDeS),
Solar‐Terrestrial Environment Laboratory of Nagoya University（STEL）,
Interna onal Space Weather Ini a ve Program (ISWI)
Science Commi ee on Solar‐Terrestrial Physics (SCOSTEP),
Na onal Aeronau cs and Space Administra on, (NASA)
Fukuoka Conven on and visitors Bureau (FCVB)The objec ve of this workshop is to provide a global forum in which par cipants discuss how to encourage
capacity building, global observa on, and science/educa on on space weather ‐‐‐ by building on the achieve‐
ments of the Interna onal Space Weather Ini a ve (ISWI). Therefore, this workshop is similar in format to theUnited Na ons ISWI workshops that were conducted in 2010 (Cairo), 2011 (Abuja), and 2012 (Quito).
Concrete objec ves of the 2015 workshop in Japan will be to: (a) Assess the status of space weather instru‐
ments (in‐situ, space‐borne), data access, availability and collec on and modeling eﬀorts to advance space
weather research improve space weather forecas ng. (b) Support the con nued the deployment of ground‐based ISWI instrument arrays and data exploita on. (c) Con nue eﬀorts in space weather educa on, especial‐ly also for students from developing na ons. IHY and ISWI have contributed to significant progress in the de‐velopment of space science schools that encourage students to consider a career in space science. (d) Review
interna onal coopera on ac vi es and the role of interna onal coopera on in addressing space weather‐related issues, such as possible further coopera on towards a truly global space‐weather monitoring capabili‐es (e) Iden fy opportuni es for interna onal coopera on in the standardiza on, sharing and wider, melyuse of data, also for opera onal purposes; data interoperability and formats will be considered, as those areimportant aspects for any standardiza on.
The observa ons and recommenda ons emana ng from the Workshop will be disseminated in form of reportof the Commi ee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space to the United Na ons General Assembly.
The United Na ons Oﬃce for Outer Space Aﬀairs (UNOOSA) will select through a standard screening process anumber of par cipants. Detailed informa on of workshop is at this website:h p://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/SAP/act2015/japan/index.html.
The venue of this workshop will be at the beau ful Luigans Spa and Resort located across Hakata Bay from
Fukuoka City. The month of March is a pleasant me of the year – cold winter is over but uncomfortable sum‐
mer has not yet started.
The host ins tu on of ICSWSE was able to secure the rights to host his workshop because of its extremely ac‐ve role in IHY and ISWI. In addi on, the primary ac vity of IHY and ISWI is the global deployment of ground‐based instrumenta on for the advancement of space weather research. In this regard, ICSWSE is a major con‐tributor to IHY/ISWI with its MAGDAS network of 72 real me magnetometers installed around the globe. Ge‐
omagne c data from these sites flow into ICSWSE on a con nuous basis via the Internet.

Profile of Author
Dr. Akimasa Yoshikawa
Lecturer
Interna onal Center for Space Weather
Science and Educa on,
ICSWSE
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
Kyushu University
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Domestic Collaborative Symposia
supported by the Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory,
Nagoya University, Japan
March 2-4, 2015, The Luigans Spa & Resort Fukuoka, Japan
Kyushu University hosts three domes c Collabora ve Symposium supported by the Solar‐Terrestrial Environ‐ment Laboratory (STEL) of Nagoya University, Japan every year in Fukuoka. (Japanese language is mainly usedthroughout this symposium except Space Weather Event Report, but presenta ons in English are also wel‐come.)

Symposium on Electromagnetospheric Physics , March 2‐3 , 2015
This symposium is meant for researchers who are studying Terrestrial electromagne c phenomena in the
global framework. All manners of doing this type of research (such as observa ons, data analyses, simula ons,
theore cal studies and methodologies) are covered by this symposium. Scien fic aspects and future plans of
this type of research are discussed to promote this research direc on in Japan. This symposium also welcomepresenta ons on the solar phenomena and solar‐wind phenomena, understanding of which is important forunderstanding the above‐stated Terrestrial phenomena in the context of the space weather. This symposium
has been held for seven years in a row. It has been hosted by Kyushu University, because many researchers inKyushu university are conduc ng global observa ons and simula ons.
Conveners: Hideaki Kawano (ICSWSE, Kyushu University) and Kazuo Shiokawa (STEL, Nagoya University)

Workshop on Regional Network for Space Weather Observa on and Educa on,
March 2‐3 , 2015
Conveners: Manabu Shinohara (Kagoshima Na onal College of Technology)

Space Weather Event Report
March 5 , 2015

(STE Events Report and Analysis Workshop),Space Weather Event Report mee ng (STE Events Report andAnalysis Workshop) is promo ng collabora ve analysis of observa‐
on and simula on data to study latest space weather events forunderstanding solar‐terrestrial connec on. This ac vity has con n‐
ued for several decades in Japan. Two event report mee ngs areheld in a year in NICT, Tokyo and Kyushu University, Fukuoka. The
most recent events that occur in the first half of the year and thela er half of the year are reviewed in each mee ng. Latest three orfour scien fically interes ng events are selected and are studied in
the mee ng. One workshop is held for analysis of a specific topic
such as extreme space weather events.

Space Weather Event Report meeting

Conveners: Shinichi Watari (NICT), Nozomu Nishitani (STEL, Nagoya University), Shuji Abe (ICSWSE, Kyushu
University), and Yusuke Ebihara (RISH, Kyoto University)

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Editor’s notes
Yuko Uchida, Editor of AOSWA LINK

It is said that February is the coldest month in Japan andsome mes we have snow, but it’s true at the same me
we can feel the sign of spring .
A er the Risshun; “立春” in Japanese and Chinese, “입춘“
in Korean, “Lập xuân” in Vietnamese which means thestart of spring in solar term, a calendar of twenty‐four pe‐
riods and climate to matches a par cular astronomical
event or signifies some natural phenomenon, we find thesmall emerging buds of trees and brightness of the sun,even though the air temperature is s ll cold. Those sign
remind me the beau ful and enjoyable spring blooming
and make me happy.
AOSWA‐3 is coming soon and this would be the one of thebest me to visit to Japan, especially Fukuoka. Because
the des na on of Excursion “Dazaifu Tenmangu” is theone of most popular sight seeing place well known for“plum blossoms ” and now is the best season. I would likethe a endee to enjoy the various sign of spring in Japan.
I look forward to seeing you in Fukuoka!

Buds of Japanese apricot
in Risshun :Feb 4

Butterbur Sprout from the groundin Usui :Feb 19
All Photos taken in the NICT yard
by Mr. Y Imai

AOSWA LINK is issued by AOSWA Secretariat
AOSWA Secretariat
c/o NICT Applied Electromagnetic Research Institute,
Space Weather and Environment Informatics Laboratory
4-2-1 Nukui-Kitamachi, Koganei, Tokyo 184-8795 Japan
URL: http://aoswa.nict.go.jp/
Email: sw‐project‐oﬃce@ml.nict.go.jp

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