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.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
Taiwan on Friday said a New Zealand hamburger restaurant has apologized for a racist remark to a Taiwanese customer after reports that it had first apologized to China sparked outrage in Taiwan. An image posted on Threads by a Taiwanese who ate at Fergburger in Queenstown showed that their receipt dated Sunday last week included the words “Ching Chang,” a racial slur. The Chinese Consulate-General in Christchurch in a statement on Thursday said it had received and accepted an apology from the restaurant over the incident. The comment triggered an online furor among Taiwanese who saw it as an insult to the
RSS