Image restoration of the asymmetric point spread function of a high-resolution remote sensing satellite with time-delayed integration

The calibration and validation team of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute has calibrated and validated the image data of the KOMPSAT-2 since the launch of KOMPSAT-2 on July 28, 2006. The asymmetric phenomenon of the point spread function of the KOMPSAT-2 image data is evident in both the along and the across direction, most likely because KOMPSAT-2 has a 1 m ground sample distance high-resolution camera with time-delayed integration. Furthermore, because KOMPSAT-2 is in space, the KOMPSAT-2 image data has been corrected with good results by means of modulation transfer function compensation.     

Ballooning activities in Japan

The Scientific Balloon Center of ISAS/JAXA has carried out two balloon campaigns at Sanriku, Iwate, Japan every year. Ten to twelve balloon vehicles are launched annually for scientific and engineering experiments. Since 2005, a Brazilian balloon campaign has also been conducted in cooperation with INPE. In the 2006 Brazilian campaign, large and heavy payloads up to 1500 kg for astronomy will be launched. New generation balloons, such as super-pressure balloons and high-altitude balloons with ultra-thin films, are being developed. The current status and prospect of the Japanese scientific ballooning are discussed.     

Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass for the International Space Station (ISS-CREAM)

The Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass (CREAM) instrument is configured with a suite of particle detectors to measure TeV cosmic-ray elemental spectra from protons to iron nuclei over a wide energy range. The goal is to extend direct measurements of cosmic-ray composition to the highest energies practical, and thereby have enough overlap with ground based indirect measurements to answer questions on cosmic-ray origin, acceleration and propagation. The balloon-borne CREAM was flown successfully for about 161 days in six flights over Antarctica to measure elemental spectra of Z = 1–26 nuclei over the energy range 10¹⁰ to >10¹⁴ eV. Transforming the balloon instrument into ISS-CREAM involves identification and replacement of components that would be at risk in the International Space Station (ISS) environment, in addition to assessing safety and mission assurance concerns. The transformation process includes rigorous testing of components to reduce risks and increase survivability on the launch vehicle and operations on the ISS without negatively impacting the heritage of the successful CREAM design. The project status, including results from the ongoing analysis of existing data and, particularly, plans to increase the exposure factor by another order of magnitude utilizing the International Space Station are presented.     

CREAM: 70 days of flight from 2 launches in Antarctica

The Cosmic-Ray Energetics And Mass balloon-borne experiment has been launched twice in Antarctica, first in December 2004 and again in December 2005. It circumnavigated the South Pole three times during the first flight, which set a flight duration record of 42 days. A cumulative duration of 70 days within 13 months was achieved when the second flight completed 28 days during two circumnavigations of the Pole on 13 January 2006. Both the science instrument and support systems functioned extremely well, and a total 117 GB of data including 67 million science events were collected during these two flights. Preliminary analysis indicates that the data extend well above 100 TeV and follow reasonable power laws. The payload recovered from the first flight has been refurbished for the third flight in 2007, whereas the payload from the second flight is being refurbished to be ready for the fourth flight in 2008. Each flight will extend the reach of precise cosmic-ray composition measurements to energies not previously possible.     

Enhancing the ATIC charge resolution

The Advanced Thin Ionization Calorimeter (ATIC) experiment is designed to investigate the charge composition and energy spectra of primary cosmic rays over the energy range from about 10¹¹ to 10¹⁴ eV during Long Duration Balloon (LDB) flights from McMurdo, Antarctica. Currently, analysis from the ATIC-1 test flight and ATIC-2 science flight is underway and preparation for a second science flight is in progress. Charge identification of the incident cosmic ray is accomplished, primarily, by a pixilated Silicon Matrix detector located at the very top of the instrument. While it has been shown that the Silicon Matrix detector provides good charge identification even in the presence of electromagnetic shower backscatter from the calorimeter, the detector only measures the charge once. In this paper, we examine use of the top scintillator hodoscope detector to provide a second measure of the cosmic ray charge and, thus, improve the ATIC charge identification.     

Time variations of cosmic-ray helium isotopes with BESS-Polar I

The Balloon-borne Experiment with a Superconducting Spectrometer (BESS) is configured with a solenoidal superconducting magnet and a suite of precision particle detectors, including time-of-flight hodoscopes based on plastic scintillators, a silica-aerogel Cherenkov detector, and a high resolution tracking system with a central jet-type drift chamber. The charges of incident particles are determined from energy losses in the scintillators. Their magnetic rigidities (momentum/charge) are measured by reconstructing each particle trajectory in the magnetic field, and their velocities are obtained by using the time-of-flight system. Together, these measurements can accurately identify helium isotopes among the incoming cosmic-ray helium nuclei up to energies in the GeV per nucleon region. The BESS-Polar I instrument flew for 8.5 days over Antarctica from December 13th to December 21st, 2004. Its long-duration flight and large geometric acceptance allow the time variations of isotopic fluxes to be studied for the first time. The time variations of helium isotope fluxes are presented here for rigidities from 1.2 to 2.5 GV and results are compared to previously reported proton data and neutron monitor data.     

Progress of super-pressure balloon development: A new “tawara” concept with improved stability

The super-pressure balloon (SPB) has been expected to be a flight vehicle that can provide a long flight duration to science. Since 1997, we have developed the SPB. Now we are at the phase of developing an SPB of a practical size. In 2009, we carried out a test flight of a pumpkin-shaped SPB with a 60,000 m³ volume. The undesirable result of this flight aroused us to resolve the deployment instability of the pumpkin-shaped SPB, which has been known as one of the most challenging issues confronting SPB development. To explore this deployment issue, in 2010, we carried out a series of ground tests. From results of these tests, we found that an SPB design modified from pumpkin, named “tawara”, can be a good candidate to greatly improve the deployment stability of the lobed SPB.