• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.117.2-117.2
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• 2012

It is generally accepted that sudden compressions of the magnetosphere cause electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) wave growth by increasing the proton temperature anisotropy. These compression-associated EMIC waves are expected to be on higher latitudes (i.e., higher-L regions close to the magnetopause). In this study we examine Pc1 pulsations, which are believed to be generated by the EMIC instability, observed at subauroral latitude near the nominal plasmapause when the magnetosphere is suddenly compressed by solar wind dynamic pressure variations, using induction magnetometer data obtained from Athabasca, Canada (geomagnetic latitude = 61.7 N, L ~ 4.5). We identified 9 compression-associated Pc1 waves with frequencies of ~0.5-2.0 Hz. The wave activity appears in the horizontal H (positive north) and D (positive eastward) components. All of events show low coherence between H and D components. This indicates that the Pc1 pulsations in H and D oscillate with a different frequency. Thus, we cannot determine the polarization state of the waves. We will discuss the occurrence location of compression-associated Pc1 pulsations, their spectral structure, and wave properties.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.86.2-86.2
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• 2011

The faint wing-like features at velocities beyond the velocity boundaries of the Galactic rotation (Forbidden-Velocity Wings, FVWs) in the large-scale position-velocity diagrams of the HI surveys are thought to be associated with dynamical Galactic events. The primary candidates of these FVWs are rapidly expanding HI shells of the old Galactic supernova remnants (SNRs), which are too faint to be visible in other frequencies. The unprecedented sensitivity and resolution of the I-GALFA survey enable detection of "all" HI shells of Galactic SNRs at forbidden velocities predicted by Koo and Kang (2004). Therefore, comparing the distribution of the FVWs visible in the I-GALFA survey and that of the model will improve our understanding on the interstellar medium and the evolution of SNRs. We have been developing an automatic searching algorithm for FVWs in the I-GALFA survey to minimize the selection effects of visual inspection used in the previous FVW study. We present the searching mechanism for FVWs and the statistical properties of the automatically searched FVWs. Also, we discuss the similarities and the differences between the distribution of the identified FVWs and that of the SNRs predicted by Koo and Kang (2004).

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.29.2-29.2
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• 2011

Although stellar flares have a long history of observations, there are few concrete understanding about underlying physical processes and meaningful correlations with other stellar properties. Most of previous observations dealt with only a small number of sample stars, and therefore not sufficient to support generalized statistical studies. Based on one-month long MMT time-series observations of the open cluster M37, we monitored light variations of nearly 2,500 M-dwarf stars and successfully identified 606 flare events from 422 stars. This is a rare attempt to estimate true flare rates and properties among many stars of the same age and mass group. For each flare, we considered both observational and physical parameters including flare shape, duration before and after the peak, baseline magnitude before and after the peak, peak magnitudes, total energy and peak energy, etc. We find significant correlations between some of key parameters over a wide range of energy ($Er=10^{32}{\sim}10^{36}ergs$). For instance, regardless of stellar luminosities, the energy power spectrum of flares can be approximated by a power law (${\beta}=0.83-0.97$). This suggests that flares follow similar physical mechanisms for atmospheric heating and cooling among these low-mass stars. From this MMT data set, we derived an average flaring rate of $0.019 hr^{-1}$ among flare stars and $0.003 hr^{-1}$ for all M-dwarf candidates. We will report the details of our analysis and discuss physical implications.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.74.3-75
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• 2019

Recent Integral Field Spectroscopy (IFS) studies revealed that not only late type galaxies (LTGs) but also early type galaxies (ETGs) have various kinds of kinematic rotation. (e.g. not clearly detectable rotation, disk-like rotation, kinematically distinct core (Cappellari 06)) Among the various studies about galactic kinematics, one of the most notable anomalies is the star-gas misalignment. The gas forms stars and stars release gas through mass-loss. In this process, their angular momentum is conserved. Therefore, kinematic decoupling between stars and gas can occur due to external gas inflow or perturbation of components. There are some possible origins of misalignment: cold gas from filaments, hot gas from outer halo, interaction or merging events with galaxies and environmental effects. Misalignment, the black box from mixture of internal and external gas, can be an important keyword for understanding further about galaxies' kinematics and external processes. Using both SAMI IFS data(Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral field spectrograph Galaxy Survey, Croom+12) and Horizon-AGN simulation(Dubois+14), we examined misaligned galaxies properties and distribution. Because the simulation has lots of galaxies at various z, we were able to study history of formation, evolution and extinction of misalignment, which was hard to be done with observation only.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.61.2-61.2
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• 2019

A total of 10,317 hours of the KMTNet telescope time were allocated for the predefined science programs, and 7,765 hours have been used for science exposures in Chile, Australia and South Africa last year. The success rate of science observation has increased from 70.7% to 75.3%, and the system operation rate has also increased from 97.6% to 99.6%. There were many improvements in mechanical parts of the dome structure and telescope system, and newly installed filter driers of the CCD camera increased the stability of the system by preventing contamination of oil in the gas line in advance. In order to prepare for the time domain astronomy and multi messenger astronomy era, a pilot program was designed and is now being tested. It targets for fast follow-up observations of optical transient events, however it runs during twilight times only so it does not interrupt any granted science program. A total of 32 SCI papers were published using the system in 2018 and it is a good indication of the high science performance of KMTNet. The selection process of the next observation programs starting from October 2020 and its timeline will be discussed in this meeting.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.48.2-48.2
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• 2019

Tidal disruption events (TDEs) provide evidence for quiescent supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in the centers of inactive galaxies. TDEs occur when a star on a parabolic orbit approaches close enough to a SMBH to be disrupted by the tidal force of the SMBH. The subsequent super-Eddington accretion of stellar debris falling back to the SMBH produces a characteristic flare lasting several months. It is theoretically expected that the bolometric light curve decays with time as proportional to $t^{-5/3}$. However, some of the observed X-ray light curves deviate from the $t^{-5/3}$ decay rate, while some of them are overall in good agreement with the $t^{-5/3}$ law. Therefore, it is required to construct the theoretical model for explaining these light curve variations consistently. In this paper, we revisit the mass fallback rates semi-analytically by taking account of the stellar internal structure, orbital eccentricity and penetration factor. We find that the mass fallback rate is shallower than the standard $t^{-5/3}$ decay rate independently of the polytropic index, and the orbital eccentricity only changes the magnitude of the mass fallback rate. Furthermore, the penetration factor significantly can modify the magnitude and variation of mass fallback rate. We confirm these results by performing the computational hydrodynamic simulations. We also discuss the relevance of our model by comparing these results with the observed light curves.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.50.1-50.1
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• 2019

In coronagraph images, it is often observed that two successive CMEs merge into one another and form complex structures. This phenomenon, so called CME cannibalism caused by the differences in ejecting times and propagating velocities, can significantly degrade forecast capability of space weather, especially if it occur near the Earth. Regarding this, we attempt to analyze the cases that two CMEs are expecting to meet around 1 AU based on their arrival times. For this, we select 13 CME-CME pairs detected by ACE, Wind and/or STEREO-A/B. We find that 8 CME-CME pairs show a shock structure, which means they already met and became one structure. Meanwhile 5 pairs clearly show magnetic holes between two respective shock structures. Based on detailed investigation for each pair and statistical analysis for all events, we can get clues for following questions: 1) How does the solar wind structure change when they are merging? 2) Are there any systematic characteristics of merging process according to the CME properties? 3) Is the merging process associated with the occurrence of energetic storm particles? 4) What causes errors in calculating CME arrival times? Our results and discussions can be helpful to understand energetic phenomena not only close to the Sun but also near the Earth.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.67-74
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• 2022

In this study, we perform a statistical investigation of the kinematic classification of 4,264 coronal mass ejections (CMEs) from 1996 to 2015 observed by SOHO/LASCO C3. Using the constant acceleration model, we classify these CMEs into three groups: deceleration, constant velocity, and acceleration motion. For this, we devise three different classification methods using fractional speed variation, height contribution, and visual inspection. The main results of this study can be summarized as follows. First, the fractions of three groups depend on the method used. Second, about half of the events belong to the groups of acceleration and deceleration. Third, the fractions of three motion groups as a function of CME speed are consistent with one another. Fourth, the fraction of acceleration motion decreases as CME speed increases, while the fractions of other motions increase with speed. In addition, the acceleration motions are dominant in low speed CMEs whereas the constant velocity motions are dominant in high speed CMEs.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.46.2-46.2
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• 2020

Dust ejection activities have been discovered from a few tens of asteroids since the first confirmation in 2006. Those objects are known as active asteroids. They provide good observational chances to study ongoing phenomena in the solar system such as sublimation of icy volatiles, mutual collisions among asteroids, rotational disintegrations, thermal fatigue, etc. Although dust ejection mechanisms of individual cases have been investigated through observations, the frequencies of the events and their connection to the overall evolutionary budget of the solar system have not yet been studied thoroughly, mainly because previous studies were based on serendipitous discoveries without any systematic surveys of these objects. In this work, we made wide-field monitoring observations of asteroids using Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet) during the 2018/2019 winter season. Among 3,644 asteroids in the field-of-view, we detected nine candidates of brightness enhancements which we suspect as possible activities. It is still possible that some of those brightness increases have caused by long-term rotations. However, our observed frequency and brightness enhancements size-frequency distribution agrees with the expectations from impacts with decimeter sized objects, when the main belt objects size-frequency distribution observed down to decameter sized bodies are extrapolated to decimeter size.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.31.1-31.1
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• 2020

A merger or interaction between galaxy clusters is one of the most violent events in the universe. Thus, an interacting cluster is an optimum laboratory to understand how galaxy properties are influenced by a drastic change of the large-scale environment. Here, we present the observational evidence that bars in disk galaxies can form by cluster-cluster interaction and the bar formation is associated with star-formation enhancement. We investigated 105 galaxy clusters at 0.015