• 제목/요약/키워드: Solar magnetic field

검색결과 249건 처리시간 0.027초

MAGNETIC HELICITY PUMPING BY TWISTED FLUX TUBE EXPANSION

  • CHAE JONGCHUL;MOON Y.-J.;RUST D. M.;WANG HAIMIN;GOODE PHILIP R.
    • Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • 제36권1호
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    • pp.33-41
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    • 2003
  • Recent observations have shown that coronal magnetic fields in the northern (southern) hemisphere tend to have negative (positive) magnetic helicity. There has been controversy as to whether this hemispheric pattern is of surface or sub-surface origin. A number of studies have focused on clarifying the effect of the surface differential rotation on the change of magnetic helicity in the corona. Meanwhile, recent observational studies reported the existence of transient shear flows in active regions that can feed magnetic helicity to the corona at a much higher rate than the differential rotation does. Here we propose that such transient shear flows may be driven by the torque produced by either the axial or radial expansion of the coronal segment of a twisted flux tube that is rooted deeply below the surface. We have derived a simple relation between the coronal expansion parameter and the amount of helicity transferred via shear flows. To demonstrate our proposition, we have inspected Yohkoh soft X-ray images of NOAA 8668 in which strong shear flows were observed. As a result, we found that the expansion of magnetic fields really took place in the corona while transient shear flows were observed in the photosphere, and the amount of magnetic helicity change due to the transient shear flows is quantitatively consistent with the observed expansion of coronal magnetic fields. The transient shear flows hence may be understood as an observable manifestation of the pumping of magnetic helicity out of the interior portions of the field lines driven by the expansion of coronal parts as was originally proposed by Parker (1974).

Research Status of Sail Propulsion using the Solar Wind

  • Funaki, Ikkoh;Yamakawa, Hiroshi
    • Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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    • 한국추진공학회 2008년 영문 학술대회
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    • pp.583-588
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    • 2008
  • A spacecraft propulsion system utilizing the energy of the solar wind was reviewed. The first plasma sail concept was proposed by Prof. Winglee in 2000, and that was called M2P2(mini-magnetospheric plasmapropulsion). However, the first M2P2 design adopting a small(20-cm-diamter) coil and a small helicon plasma source design was criticized by Dr. Khazanov in 2003. He insisted that: 1) MHD is not an appropriate approximation to describe the M2P2 design by Winglee, and with ion kinetic simulation, it was shown that the M2P2 design could provide only negligible thrust; 2) considerably larger sails(than that Winglee proposed) would be required to tap the energy of the solar wind. We started our plasma ssail study in 2003, and it is shown that moderately sized magnetic sails can produce sub-Newton-class thrust in the ion inertial scale(${\sim}70$ km). Currently, we are continuing our efforts to make a feasibly sized plasma sail(Magnetoplasma sail) by optimizing the magnetic field inflation process Winglee proposed.

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Seeking magnetic separatrices on the solar surface using EUV waves

  • Jang, Soojeong;Kwon, Ryun-Young;Kim, Rok-Soon;Lee, Jae-Ok
    • The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • 제44권1호
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    • pp.50.3-50.3
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    • 2019
  • The EUV wave is a disturbance that has been believed to be the fast-mode (shock) wave, which can propagate passing through magnetic field lines. After the passage of EUV waves, coronal streamers start to show kink-mode oscillations, and the footpoints, i.e., magnetic separatrices, of the oscillating streamers are observed as the so-called stationary front. We compare the stationary front observed by EUV imagers and coronal streamers observed in coronagraphic images. We analyze the successive events occurred in September 2011. We find that the stationary fronts are consistent with the coronal streamer boundaries, and they are located along the boundaries of coronal holes and active regions. Our results confirm that EUV waves are in fact fast-mode waves and demonstrate that the stationary front is a promising tool to probe into the source of slow solar wind that is the boundary of coronal streamers on the solar surface.

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Three Dimensional Computer Modeling of Magnetospheric Substorm

  • Min, Kyoung-W.
    • Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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    • 제6권1호
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    • pp.1-15
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    • 1989
  • Magnetospheic substorm in the magnetotail region is studied numerically by means of a three dimensional MHD code. The analytic solution for the quiet magnetotail is employed as an initial configuration. The localized solar wind is modeled to enter the simulation domain through the boundaries located in the magnetotail lobe region. As a result of the interaction between the solar wind and the magnetosphere, the magnetic field lines are stretched, and the plasma sheet becomes thinner and thinner. When the current driven resistivity is generated, magnetic reconnection is triggered by this resistivity. The resulting plasma jetting is found to be super-magnetosonic. Although the plasmoid formation and its tailward motion is not quite clear as in the two dimensional simulation, which is mainly because of the numerical model chosen for the present simulation, the rarification of the plasmas near the x-point is observed. Field aligned currents are observed in the late expansive stage of the magnetospheric substorm. These field aligned currents flow from the tail toward the ionosphere on the dawn side from the ionosphere to ward the tail on the dusk side, namely in the same sense of the region 1 current. As the field aligned currents develop, it is found that the cross tail current in the earth side midnight section of the magnetic x-point is reduced.

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Statistical Studies on the Physical Parameters and Oscillations of Sunspots and Flares

  • Cho, Il-Hyun;Cho, Kyung-Suk;Kim, Yeon-Han
    • The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • 제41권2호
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    • pp.41.2-41.2
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    • 2016
  • We perform three statistical studies on the physical properties and oscillations in the confined plasma such as a photospheric sunspot and confined coronal loop. From the statistical studies on the sunspot umbra and its oscillation, we find that (1) the total magnetic flux inside the umbra for the three groups increases proportionally with the powers of the umbral area and the power indices in the three groups significantly differ from each other; (2) the three groups have different characteristics in their umbral area, intensity, magnetic field strength, and Doppler velocity as well as their relationships; (3) the mean frequency of the umbral oscillations increases with the umbral mean magnetic field strength and height; (4) the time delay of the core intensity of Fe I absorption line relative to the continuum which are de-convolved with the frequency range higher than 3.5 mHz is mostly positive, implying that the photospheric umbral oscillations are likely upwardly propagating; (5) the umbral mean plasma beta ranges approximately 0.6-1.1 and does not vary significantly from pores to mature sunspots. From the comparative study on the quasi-periodic pulsations (QPPs) in the solar and stellar flares, (6) we find that the power index of the periods scaling the damping times observed in the stellar QPPs is consistent with that observed in the solar QPPs, suggesting that physical mechanisms responsible for the stellar QPPs are likely the magneto-hydrodynamic oscillation of solar coronal loops.

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Statistical study on nightside geosynchronous magnetic field responses to interplanetary shocks

  • Park, Jong-Sun;Kim, Khan-Hyuk;Araki, Tohru;Lee, Dong-Hun;Lee, Ensang;Jin, Ho
    • The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • 제37권2호
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    • pp.116.1-116.1
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    • 2012
  • When an interplanetary (IP) shock passes over the Earth's magnetosphere, the geosynchronous magnetic field strength near the noon is always enhanced, while the geosynchronous magnetic field near the midnight decreases or increases. In order to understand what determines the positive or negative magnetic field response at nightside geosynchronous orbit to sudden increases in the solar wind dynamic pressure, we have examined 120 IP shock-associated sudden commencements (SC) using magnetic field data from the GOES spacecraft near the midnight (MLT = 2200~0200) and found the following magnetic field perturbation characteristics. (1) There is a strong seasonal dependence of geosynchronous magnetic field perturbations during the passage of IP shocks. That is, the SC-associated geosynchronous magnetic field near the midnight increases (a positive response) in summer and decreases (a negative response) in winter. (2) These field perturbations are dominated by the radial magnetic field component rather than the north-south magnetic field component at nightside geosynchronous orbit. (3) The magnetic elevation angles corresponding to positive and negative responses decrease and increase, respectively. These field perturbation properties can be explained by the location of the cross-tail current enhancement during SC interval with respect to geosynchronous spacecraft position.

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