• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.39-47
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• 2008

Spectral line profiles of filaments/prominences to be observed by the Fast Imaging Solar Spectrograph (FISS) are studied. The main spectral lines of interests are $H{\alpha}$, Ca II 8542, and Ca II K. FISS has a high spectral resolving power of $2{\times}10^5$, and supports simultaneous dual-band recording. This instrument will be installed at the 1.6m New Solar Telescope (NST) of Big Bear Solar Observatory, which has a high spatial resolution of 0.065" at 500nm. Adopting the cloud model of radiative transfer and using the model parameters inferred from pre-existing observations, we have simulated a set of spectral profiles of the lines that are emitted by a filament on the disk or a prominence at the limb. Taking into account the parameters of the instrument, we have estimated the photon count to be recorded by the CCD cameras, the signal-to-noise ratios, and so on. We have also found that FISS is suitable for the study of multi-velocity threads in filaments if the spectral profiles of Ca II lines are recorded together with $H{\alpha}$ lines.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.67-82
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• 2007

The basic building block of solar filaments/prominences is thin threads of cool plasma. We have studied the spectral properties of velocity threads, clusters of thinner density threads moving together, by analyzing a sequence of $H{\alpha}$ images of a quiescent filament. The images were taken at Big Bear Solar Observatory with the Lyot filter being successively tuned to wavelengths of -0.6, -0.3, 0.0, +0.3, and +0.6 ${\AA}$ from the centerline. The spectra of contrast constructed from the image data at each spatial point were analyzed using cloud models with a single velocity component, or three velocity components. As a result, we have identified a couple of velocity threads that are characterized by a narrow Doppler width($\Delta\lambda_D=0.27{\AA}$), a moderate value of optical thickness at the $H{\alpha}$ absorption peak($\tau_0=0.3$), and a spatial width(FWHM) of about 1". It has also been inferred that there exist 4-6 velocity threads along the line of sight at each spatial resolution element inside the filament. In about half of the threads, matter moves fast with a line-of-sight speed of $15{\pm}3km\;s^{-1}$, but in the other half it is either at rest or slowly moving with a line-of-sight velocity of $0{\pm}3km\;s^{-1}$. It is found that a statistical balance approximately holds between the numbers of blue-shifted threads and red-shifted threads, and any imbalance between the two numbers is responsible for the non-zero line-of-sight velocity determined using a single-component model fit. Our results support the existence not only of high speed counter-streaming flows, but also of a significant amount of cool matter either being at rest or moving slowly inside the filament.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.311-317
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• 2014

Solar chromospheric surges are often reported to contain rotational motion. However, the details of the motion and driving mechanism of the surges are not yet fully understood. Recurrent surges with rotational motion at AR 10930 on the west limb are observed by Hinode Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) continuously from 11:21 UT on December 18 to 09:58 UT on December 19, 2006, using the $Ca_{II}$ H broadband filter. We analyze details of the motion including number of turns from the rise of the surge to the fall, axial speed and acceleration. During the observation, rise and fall motion accompanying rotation appears recurrently. There occur a total of 14 surges at AR 10930 over 17 hours. The average duration is 45 minutes, and the average width, and length are 8 Mm, and 39 Mm, respectively. We speculate that the surges occurred by recurrent reconnections between the twisted prominence and large untwisted flux tube.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.157-170
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• 2021

We investigate flow and magnetic structure of a solar prominence with a focus on how the magnetic field originally determined by subsurface dynamics gives rise to the structure. We perform a magnetohydrodynamic simulation that reproduces the self-consistent evolution of a flow and the magnetic field passing freely through the solar surface. By analyzing Lagrangian displacements of magnetized plasma elements, we demonstrate the flow structure that is naturally incorporated to the magnetic structure of the prominence formed via dynamic interaction between the flow and the magnetic field. Our results explain a diverging flow on a U-loop, a counterclockwise downdraft along a rotating field line, acceleration and deceleration of a downflow along an S-loop, and partial emergence of a W-loop, which may play key roles in determining structural properties of the prominence.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.25-25
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• 2010

With the aim of resolving important physical problems in the chromosphere of the Sun, we developed the Fast Imaging Solar Spectrograph for several years, and at last successfully installed it in the Coude room of the 1.6 meter New Solar Telescope at Big Bear in 2010 May. The instrument is an Echelle spectrograph with imaging capability based on slit scan, and can record two spectral bands (e.g., H alpha band and Ca II 8542 band) simultaneously. The early runs of the instrument produced data of high quality that are suited for the study of quiet Sun, filaments on the disk, prominences outside the limb, active regions and sunspots. We are ready to do good solar sciences using our own instrument, and will be able to do best sciences with the coming improvement of spatial resolution.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.31.4-32
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• 2016

Observing the solar atmosphere with ground-based telescopes in the near-infrared has a number of advantages when compared to classical measurements in visible wavelengths. One of them comes from the magnetic sensitivity of spectral lines, which varies as ${\lambda}_g$, where g is the effective $Land{\acute{e}}$ factor of the transition. This wavelength dependence makes the near-infrared range adequate to study subtle spatial or temporal variations of the magnetic field. Spectral lines, such as the photospheric Fe I $1.5648{\mu}m$ spectral line, with a $Land{\acute{e}}$ factor g=3, have often been used in the past for this type of studies. To study the chromosphere, the Ca II IR triplet and the He I $1.0830{\mu}m$ triplet are the most often observed lines. The latter has the additional advantage that the photospheric Si I $1.0827{\mu}m$ is close enough so that photosphere and chromosphere can be simultaneously recorded with a single detector in a spectrograph. The instrument TIP (Tenerife Infrared Polarimeter) has been continuously operating since 1999 at the 70-cm German VTT of the Observatorio del Teide and has been recently moved to the 1.5-m German GREGOR. During all this time, results have been obtained concerning the nature of the weak photospheric magnetic field of the quiet sun, magneto-acoustic wave propagation, evolution with the cycle of sunspot magnetic fields, photospheric and chromospheric magnetic field in emerging regions, magnetic field in chromospheric structures such as filaments, prominences, flares, and spicules, etc. In this talk, I will review the main results obtained after all these observations and mention the main challenges for the future. With its novel polarization-free design and a complete suite of instruments aimed at simultaneous (imaging and spectroscopic) observations of the solar photosphere and chromosphere, the EST (European Solar Telescope) will represent a major world-wide infrastructure to understand the physical nature of all these phenomena.