KASI’s activities for space weather

The Solar Physics Group of KASI initiated space weather research by observing sunspots in 1987 with the Sunspot Telescope and then established the Korean Space Weather Prediction Center (KSWPC) in 2007. It has operated a number of ground facilities such as a solar flare telescope, solar radio telescopes, magnetometers, VHF ionospheric coherent scattering radar, all-sky imagers, GPS ionospheric scintillation monitors, and recently joined a neutron monitor. For international collaboration, KASI has reached an agreement with NASA to set up a Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO) data center and a 7 m S-band antenna for the Van Allen Probes (VAP). In addition, 1.6 m Goode Solar Telescope (GST) from Big Bear Solar Observatory and European Incoherent Scattering Radar (EISCAT) data have been secured through international cooperation. KASI has been actively conducting research on near-Earth influence by solar eruptions and high-speed solar wind. There are two space-based KASI instruments: One is the SNIPE satellite, which consists of four nano-satellites that was launched in 2023 to observe the near-Earth space environment. The other one is the solar coronagraph called Coronal Diagnostic EXperiment (CODEX) for the International Space Station, which is being developed jointly with NASA and is scheduled to launch in 2024. Recently, KASI selected a feasibility study (‘23 – ’25) for the L4 mission as a part of internal projects for international collaboration. It is expected that L4 Mission will advance heliophysics science and significantly improve space weather forecasting capability by providing continuous and unique observations of the heliosphere at the metastable vantage point. In this talk, I will briefly introduce KASI activities for solar and space weather and future plans for next-generation space weather including geostationary particle measurement.