A Taiwan-made space instrument installed on Japan’s scientific satellite Arase has helped researchers observe aurora formation at unexpectedly high altitudes, helping to advance understanding about space weather and communications systems on Earth, scientists said on Tuesday.
The Taiwanese-Japanese team detailed their findings in a paper titled “Active auroral arc powered by accelerated electrons from very high altitudes,” which was published in the journal Scientific Reports on Monday.
Scientists from National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) and Academia Sinica were in charge of the Low-Energy Particle Experiments-Electron Analyzer, one of the nine instruments on the satellite, enabling it to observe energy distribution and density of low-energy electrons surrounding the Earth.
Photo: Reuters
“This is the first time that Taiwan has manufactured such fine and high-resolution instrument for space measuring,” the university said in a news release.
Auroras are generated by electrons accelerated by a static electric field hitting the atmosphere, producing bright and elongated arcs in the nightside polar regions, Academia Sinica said.
Over the past 50 years, scientists had assumed that the electron acceleration takes places at altitudes of no more than 20,000km, but observations made through the Taiwan-made instrument found that it could occur at altitudes of up to 30,000km, it said.
The breakthrough not only overturns previous conception about the region of auroral formation, but generates new questions about how electrons work at higher altitudes, and might affect space weather, as well as communications and electrical systems on Earth, NCKU Institute of Space and Plasma Sciences professor Sunny Tam (談永頤) said.
While domestic studies on space weather mainly revolve around the ionosphere, Tam said that more attention should be paid to the magnetosphere.
Tam said that his team was in 2010 invited by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to join the satellite’s development.
Due to budgetary concerns, they later invited Academia Sinica to join the team, Tam said.
From 2010 until the satellite was launched in 2016, the university and Academia Sinica devoted nearly NT$30 million (US$1.06 million) to the instrument’s development, he added.
The funding was modest when compared with that of a major satellite project, but the outcome is precious, Tam said, describing the case as an example of optimal international cooperation of space technology that would usually need astronomical funds.
While Taiwan aspires to launch more satellites into space, it should overlook developing advanced scientific instruments in partnership with other countries, he added.
The satellite is operating at an orbit of 200km to 32,000km above ground, meaning their instrument has flown farther than any other Taiwanese instrument has done before, said Wang Shiang-yu (王祥宇), acting director of Academia Sinica’s Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics.
That also means it has proved resistant to strong radiation and temperature differences of up to 200oC in space, he said.
The satellite, designed to serve for only one year, has operated for more than four years, he added.
As auroras can also be observed in other celestial bodies, the team’s findings would assist other efforts in space exploration, Wang said.
The Arase satellite, formerly known as the Exploration of Energization and Radiation in Geospace, is headed by JAXA, with NCKU and Academia Sinica being the only instrument team from outside of Japan.
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
The lowest temperature in a low-lying area recorded early yesterday morning was in Miaoli County’s Gongguan Township (公館), at 6.8°C, due to a strong cold air mass and the effect of radiative cooling, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. In other areas, Chiayi’s East District (東區) recorded a low of 8.2°C and Yunlin County’s Huwei Township (虎尾) recorded 8.5°C, CWA data showed. The cold air mass was at its strongest from Saturday night to the early hours of yesterday. It brought temperatures down to 9°C to 11°C in areas across the nation and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties,
STAY VIGILANT: When experiencing symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, such as dizziness or fatigue, near a water heater, open windows and doors to ventilate the area Rooftop flue water heaters should only be installed outdoors or in properly ventilated areas to prevent toxic gas from building up, the Yilan County Fire Department said, after a man in Taipei died of carbon monoxide poisoning on Monday last week. The 39-year-old man, surnamed Chen (陳), an assistant professor at Providence University in Taichung, was at his Taipei home for the holidays when the incident occurred, news reports said. He was taking a shower in the bathroom of a rooftop addition when carbon monoxide — a poisonous byproduct of combustion — leaked from a water heater installed in a poorly ventilated
RSS