• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.121-131
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• 2019

The ionospheric mid-latitude trough (IMT) is the electron density depletion phenomenon in the F region during nighttime. It has been suggested that the IMT is the result of complex plasma processes coupled to the magnetosphere. In order to statistically investigate the characteristics of the IMT, we analyze topside sounding data from Alouette and ISIS satellites in 1960s and 1970s. The IMT position is almost constant for seasons and solar activities whereas the IMT depth ratio and the IMT feature are stronger and clearer in the winter hemisphere under solar minimum condition. We also calculated transition heights at which the densities of oxygen ions and hydrogen/helium ions are equal. Transition heights are generally higher in daytime and lower in nighttime, but the opposite aspects are seen in the IMT region. Utilizing the Incoherent Scatter Radar (ISR) electron temperature measurements, we find that the electron temperature in the IMT region is enhanced at night during winter. The increase of electron temperature may cause fast transport of the ionospheric plasma to the magnetosphere via ambipolar diffusion, resulting in the IMT depletion. This mechanism of the IMT may work in addition to the simply prolonged recombination of ions proposed by the traditional stagnation model.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.45-60
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• 2019

The Earth's outer radiation belt has long received considerable attention mainly because the MeV electron flux in the belt varies often dramatically and at various time scales. It is now widely accepted that the wave-particle interaction is one of the major mechanisms responsible for such flux variations. The wave-particle interaction can accelerate electrons to MeV energies, explaining the observed flux increase events, and can also scatter the electrons' motion into the loss cone, resulting in atmospheric precipitation and thus contributing to flux dropouts. In this paper, we provide a review of the current state of research on relativistic electron scattering and precipitation due to the interaction with electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves in the inner magnetosphere. The review is intended to cover progress made over the last ~15 years in the theory and simulations of various issues, including quasilinear resonance diffusion, nonlinear interactions, nonresonant interactions, effects of finite normal angle on pitch angle scattering, effects due to rising tone emission, and ways to scatter near-equatorial pitch angle electrons. The review concludes with suggestions of a few promising topics for future research.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.139-148
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• 2008

It has been known that high-speed solar wind streams associated with coronal holes lead to quasi-periodic substorms that occur approximately every $2{\sim}4$ hours. In this paper we examined 222 repetitive substorms that occurred during high-speed stream periods in July through December in 2003 to quantitatively determine a range of energy input from the solar wind into the magnetosphere between two consecutive substorms. For this study, we have used the Akasofu ${\varepsilon}$-parameter to time-integrate it for the interval between two consecutive substorms, and have applied this method to the 222 substorms. We find that the average amount of solar wind input energy between two adjacent substorms is $1.28{\times}10^{14}J$ and about 85% out of the 222 substorms occur after an energy input of $2{\times}10^{13}{\sim}2.3{\times}10^{14}J$. Based on these results, we suggest that it is not practical to predict when a sub storm will occur after a previous one occurs purely based on the solar wind-magnetosphere energy coupling. We provide discussion on several possible factors that may affect determining substorm onset times during high-speed streams.

• Journal of Space Technology and Applications
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.178-198
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• 2021

The Solar Space Environment Division of the Korean Society of Space Science (KSSS) has recently conducted a survey among the domestic researchers affiliated with academia, national research institutes, and for-profit institutes of how the data and models in their professional research field are produced, maintained, and utilized. The primary purpose of this survey is to increase the awareness and utilization of the space environment data and models as well as to promote constructive collaborations among the domestic and international researchers. The models and data surveyed are categorized into three sub-fields: the solar and interplanetary space, the (terrestrial) magnetosphere, and the ionosphere and upper atmosphere. The present paper reports the survey results in the "Magnetosphere" category. The survey shows that the domestically produced data in this category are far less than the data produced in other categories. This can be understood in part as follows: Magnetospheric research relies heavily on the in-situ observations but the development and operation of space-hardened satellites require a significant investment. Nevertheless, the recent publications show an increasing trend of research using the data from the ground stations and the recently launched domestic space missions. In the modeling front, there are first-principles physics models covering from the magnetospheric scale to the sub-ion scale and the models geared towards the space weather prediction. The detailed survey results can be accessed from the KSSS website (http://ksss.or.kr/).

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.11-14
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• 2001

In this paper, we simplify the equations of the Macdonald-Thome black hole magnetosphere. Our major assumption is that the 3-D electric and magnetic flux isosurfaces respectively form families of confocal oblate spheroids and hyperboloids. As a result, the magnetospheric equations are greatly simplified, and may provide a useful framework for instances when rigorous, theoretical approaches are not necessary.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.11-14
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• 2003

In the earlier papers we analyzed the axisymmetric, nonstationary electrodynamics of the central black hole and a surrounding thin accretion disk in an active galactic nucleus. Based on those papers we analyze the axisymmetric, nonstationary force-free black hole magnetosphere and the motion of the plasma. We concentrate on deriving the totally new equations for the entropy incrrease and the angular momentum, energy extraction of the black hole.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.15-20
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• 2003

In the earlier papers we analyzed the axisymmetric, nonstationary electrodynamics of the central black hole and a surrounding thin accretion disk in an active galactic nucleus. Based on those papers we analyze the axisymmetric, nonstationary black hole magnetosphere in this paper. We concentrate on deriving the ‘Grad-Shafranov equations’; both in the force-free and non-force-free cases. In the time-independent limit our equations naturally coincide with stationary equations as they should.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.34-34
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• 2009

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.301-303
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• 2001

We suggest a possible scenario of an astrophysical black hole with non-vanishing electric charge and magnetic flux. The equilibrium charge on a rotating black hole in a force-free magnetosphere is calculated to be Q $\~$ BJ with a horizon flux of ${\~}BM^2$, which is not large enough to disturb the background Kerr geometry. Being similar to the electric charge of a magnetar, in sign and order of magnitude, both electric charge and magnetic flux are supposed to be continuous onto a black hole.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.303-314
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• 2004

In this paper we report some properties of inner magnetospheric structure inferred from the T01_s code, one of the latest magnetospheric models by Tsyganenko. We have constructed three average storms representing moderate, strong, and severe intensity storms using 95 actual storms. The three storms are then modelled by the T01_s code to examine differences in magnetic structure among them. We find that the magnetic structure of intense storms is strikingly different from the normal structure. First, when the storm intensity is large, the field lines anchored at dayside longitudinal sectors become warped tailward to align to the solar wind direction. This is particularly so for the field lines anchored at the longitudinal sectors from postnoon through dusk. Also while for the moderate storm the equatorial magnetic field near geosynchronous altitude is found to be weakest near midnight sector, this depression region expands into even late afternoon sector during the severe storm. Accordingly the field line curvature radius at the equator in the premidnight geosynchronous region becomes unusually small, reaching down to a value less than 500 km. We attribute this strong depression and the dawn-dusk asymmetry to the combined effect from the enhanced tail current and the westward expansion/rotation of the partial ring current.