• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.110.1-110.1
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• 2012

We studied the source regions of 12 solar energetic particle (SEP) events seen between 2010 August and 2012 January at STEREO-A, B and ACE, when the two STEREO spacecraft were separated by about $180^{\circ}$. All events were associated with strong flares (C1 - X6) and fast coronal mass ejections (CMEs) accompanied by type II radio bursts. We have determined the arrival times of the SEP events at the three spacecraft. EUV waves observed in $195{\AA}$ and $193{\AA}$ channels of STEREO and SDO/AIA are tracked across the Sun and the arrival time of the EUV wave at the photospheric source of open field lines extending to the spacecraft connection points at 2.5 Rsun estimated. We found 7 events with flux enhancements in all spacecraft and 4 in two spacecraft. Most events came from a single source. The results show that magnetic field connections between source regions and the spacecraft play an important role in abrupt flux enhancements. In the most cases, EUV waves at the Sun are associated with a wide longitudinal spread of the SEPs.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.7
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• pp.3151-3156
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• 2014

Background: Sorafenib is a promising drug for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); however, treatment may be discontinued for multiple reasons, such as progressive disease, adverse events, or the cost of treatment. The consequences of sorafenib discontinuation and continuation are uncertain. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 88 HCC patients treated with sorafenib from July 2007 to January 2013. Overall survival (OS), post-disease progression overall survival (pOS), and time to disease progression (TTP) were compared for survival analysis. Cox proportional hazard regression was performed to assess the effect of important factors on OS in the overall patient population and on pOS in patients who continued sorafenib treatment. Results: Sorafenib was discontinued and continued in 24 and 64 patients, respectively. The median OS (355 vs 517 days respectively; p=0.015) and median post-PD OS (260 vs 317 days, respectively; p=0.020) were statistically different between the discontinuation and continuation groups. Neither the median time to first PD nor the time to second PD were significantly different between the 2 groups. In the discontinuation group, 3 of the 24 patients (12.5%) suffered disease outbreaks. In Cox proportional hazard regression analysis after correction for confounding factors, BCLC stage (p=0.002) and PD site (p=0.024) were significantly correlated with pOS in patients who continued sorafenib treatment. Conclusions: Sorafenib discontinuation may cause HCC flares or outbreaks. It is advisable to continue sorafenib treatment after first PD, particularly in patients with Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage B disease or only intrahepatic PD.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.127-136
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• 1999

In this study we present the study of solar active regions based on BOAO vector magnetograms and H$\alpha$ filtergrams. With the new calibration method we analyzed BOAO vector magnetograms taken from the SOFT observational system to compare with those of other observing systems. In this study it has been demonstrated that (1) our longitudinal magnetogram matches very well the corresponding Mitaka's magnetogram to the extent that the maximum correlation yields r=0.962 between our re-scaled longitudinal magnetogram and the Mitaka's magnetogram; (2) according to a comparison of our magnetograms of AR 8422 with those taken at Mitaka solar observatory their longitudinal fields are very similar to each other while transverse fields are a little different possibly due to large noise level; (3) main features seen by our longitudinal magnetograms of AR 8422 and AR 8419 and the corresponding Kitt Peak magnetograms are very similar to each other; (4) time series of our vector magnetograms and H-alpha observations of AR 8419 during its flaring (M3.1/1B) activity show that the filament eruption followed the sheared inversion line of the quadrupolar configuration of sunspots, indicating that the flare should be associated with the quadrupolar field configuration and its interaction with new filament eruption. Finally, it may be concluded that the Solar Flare Telescope at BOAO works normally and it is ready to do numerous observational and theoretical works associated with solar activities such as flares.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.15 no.spc2
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• pp.21-25
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• 2000

The ionosphere, the atmosphere of the earth ionized by solar radiations, has been strongly varied with solar activity. The ionosphere varies with the solar cycle, the seasons, the latitudes and during any given day. Radio wave propagation through or in the ionosphere is affected by ionospheric condition so that one needs to consider its effects on operating communication systems normally. For examples, sporadic E may form at any time. It occurs at altitudes between 90 to 140 km (in the E region), and may be spread over a large area or be confined to a small region. Sometimes the sporadic E layer works as a mirror so that the communication signal does not reach the receiver. And radiation from the Sun during large solar flares causes increased ionization in the D region which results in greater absorption of HF radio waves. This phenomenon is called short wave fade-outs. If the flare is large enough, the whole of the HF spectrum can be rendered unusable for a period of time. Due to events on the Sun, sometimes the Earth's magnetic field becomes disturbed. The geomagnetic field and the ionosphere are linked in complex ways and a disturbance in the geomagnetic field can often cause a disturbance in the F region of the ionosphere. An enhancement will not usually concern the HF communicator, but the depression may cause frequencies normally used for communication to be too high with the result that the wave penetrates the ionosphere. Ionospheric storms can occur throughout the solar cycle and are related to coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and coronal holes on the Sun. Except the above mentioned phenomena, there are a lot of things to affect the radio communication. Nowadays, radio technique for probing the terrestrial ionosphere has a tendency to use satellite system such as GPS. To get more accurate information about the variation of the ionospheric electron density, a TEC measurement system is necessary so RRL will operate the system in the near future.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.59-65
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• 2002

Solar observations support that magnetic reconnect ion ubiquitously occurs in the chromosphere as well as in the corona. It is now widely accepted that coronal magnetic reconnect ion is fast reconnect ion of the Petschek type, and is the main driver of solar flares. On the other hand, it has been thought that the traditional Sweet-Parker model may describe chromospheric reconnect ion without difficulty, since the electric conductivity in the chromoshphere is much lower than that in the corona. However, recent observations of cancelling magnetic features have suggested that chromospheric reconnect ion might proceed at a faster rate than the Sweet-Parker model predicts. We have applied the Sweet-Parker model and Petschek model to a well-observed cancelling magnetic feature. As a result, we found that the inflow speed of the Sweet-Parker reconnect ion is too small to explain the observed converging speed of the feature. On the other hand, the inflow speeds and outflow speeds of the Petschek reconnect ion are well compatible with observations. Moreover, we found that the Sweet-Parker type current sheet is subject to the ion-acoustic instability in the chromosphere, implying the Petschek mechanism may operate there. Our results strongly suggest that chromospheric reconnect ion is of the Petschek type.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.87.1-87.1
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• 2012

We use three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations to investigate how the dynamic state of emerging magnetic field is related to the twist of field lines. Emergence of magnetic field is considered as one of the key physical process producing solar activity such as flares, jets, and coronal mass ejections. To understand these activities we have to know dynamic nature and electric current structure provided by emerging magnetic field. To demonstrate dynamic nature of field lines, we focus on the factors such as curvature of magnetic field line and scale height of magnetic field strength. These factors show that strong twist case forms two-part structure in which the central part is close to a force-free state while the outer marginal part is in a fairly dynamic state. For weak twist case, it still shows two-part structure but the tendency becomes weaker than strong twist case. We discuss how the curvature distribution affects the dynamic nature of emerging magnetic field. We also investigate electric current distribution provided by emerging field lines to show a possible relation between electric current structure and sigmoid observed in a preflare phase.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.55-60
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• 2009

The properties of SOHO/LASCO CMEs are subjected to projection effects. Their dependence on the source position is important to be studied. Our main aim is to study the dependence of CME properties on helio-longitude and latitude using the CMEs associated with type IIs observed by Wind/WAVES spacecraft (Deca-hecta metric type IIs - DH type IIs). These CMEs were identified as a separate population of geo-effective CMEs. We considered the CMEs associated with the Wind/WAVE type IIs observed during the period January 1997 - December 2005. The source locations of these CMEs were identified using their associated GOES X-ray flares and listed online. Using their locations and the cataloged properties of CMEs, we carried out a study on the dependence of CME properties on source location. We studied the above for three groups of CMEs: (i) all CMEs, (ii) halo and non-halo CMEs, and (iii) limb and non-limb CMEs. Major results from this study can be summarized as follows. (i) There is a clear dependence of speed on both the longitude and latitude; while there is an increasing trend with respect to longitude, it is opposite in the case of latitude. Our investigations show that the longitudinal dependence is caused by the projection effect and the latitudinal effect by the solar cycle effect. (ii) In the case of width, the disc centered events are observed with more width than those occurred at higher longitudes, and this result seems to be the same for latitude. (iii) The dependency of speed is confirmed on the angular distance between the sun-center and source location determined using both the longitude and latitude. (iv) There is no dependency found in the case of acceleration. (v) Among all the three groups of CMEs, the speeds of halo CMEs show more dependency on longitude. The speed of non-halo and non-limb CMEs show more dependency on latitude. The above results may be taken into account in correcting the projection effects of geo-effective CMEs.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.41-53
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• 2004

It has been a big mystery what drives filament eruptions and flares. We have studied in detail an X1.8 flare and its associated filament eruption that occurred in NOAA Active Region 9236 on November 24,2000. For this work we have analyzed high temporal (about 1 minute) and spatial (about 1 arcsec) resolution images taken by Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI) onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, Hoc centerline and blue wing ($-0.6{\AA}$) images from Big Bear Solar Observatory, and 1600 ${\AA}$ UV images by the Transition Region and Corona Explorer (TRACE). We have found that there were several transient brightenings seen in H$\alpha$ and, more noticeably in TRACE 1600 ${\AA}$ images around the preflare phase. A closer look at the UV brightenings in 1600 ${\AA}$ images reveals that they took place near one end of the erupting filament, and are a kind of jets supplying mass into the transient loops seen in 1600 ${\AA}$. These brightenings were also associated with canceling magnetic features (CMFs) as seen in the MDI magnetograms. The flux variations of these CMFs suggest that the flux cancellation may have been driven by the emergence of the new flux. For this event, we have estimated the ejection speeds of the filament ranging from 10 to 160 km $s^{-1}$ for the first twenty minutes. It is noted that the initiation of the filament eruption (as defined by the rise speed less than 20 km $s^{-1}$) coincided with the preflare activity characterized by UV brightenings and CMFs. The speed of the associated LASCO CME can be well extrapolated from the observed filament speed and its direction is consistent with those of the disturbed UV loops associated with the preflare activity. Supposing the H$\alpha$/UV transient brightenings and the canceling magnetic features are due to magnetic reconnect ion in the low atmosphere, our results may be strong observational evidence supporting that the initiation of the filament eruption and the preflare phase of the associated flare may be physically related to low-atmosphere magnetic reconnection.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.437-443
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• 2005

The Solar Radio Burst Locator (SRBL) is a spectrometer that can observe solar microwave bursts over a wide band (0.1-18 GHz) as well as detect the burst locations without interferometry or mechanical scanning. Its prototype has been operated at Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) since 1998. In this study, we have evaluated the capability of the SRBL system in flux and radio burst location measurements. For this, we consider 130 microwave bursts from 2000 to 2002. The SRBL radio fluxes of 53 events were compared with the fluxes from USAF/RSTN and the burst locations of 25 events were compared with the optical flare locations. From this study, we found: (1) there is a relatively good correlation (r = 0.9) between SRBL flux and RSTN flux; (2) the mean location error is about 8.4 arcmin and the location error (4.7 arcmin) of single source events is much smaller than that (14.9 arcmin) of multiple source events; (3) the minimum location error usually occurred just after the starting time of burst, mostly within 10 seconds; (4) there is a possible anti-correlation (r = -0.4) between the pointing error of SRBL antenna and the location error. The anti-correlation becomes more evident (r=-0.9) for 6 strong single source events associated with X-class flares. Our results show that the flux measurement of SRBL is consistent with that of RSTN, and the mean location error of SRBL is estimated to be about 5 arcmin for single source events.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.63.1-63.1
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• 2013

To improve the forecast capability of geomagnetic storms, we consider the real time solar and near Earth conditions together, since the characteristics of CMEs can be modified during their transit from the Sun to the Earth, and the geomagnetic storms may be directly affected by not only solar events but also near Earth interplanetary conditions. Using 55 CME-Dst pairs associated with M- and X-class solar flares, which have clearly identifiable source regions during 1997 to 2003, we confirm that the peak values of negative magnetic field Bz and duskward electric field Ey prior to Dst minimum are strongly related with Dst index. We suggest the solar wind criteria (Bz<-5 nT or Ey>3 mV/m for t>2 hr) for moderate storm less than -50 nT by modifying the criteria for intense storms less than -100 nT proposed by Gonzalez and Tsurutani (GT, 1987). As the results, 90% (28/31) of the storms are correctly forecasted by our criteria. For 15 exceptional events that are incorrectly forecasted by only CME parameters, 12 cases (80%) can be properly forecasted by solar wind criteria. When we applying CME and solar wind conditions together, all geomagnetic storms (Dst<-50 nT) are correctly forecasted. Our results show that, the storm forecast capability of the 2~3 days advanced warning based on CME parameters can be improved by combining with the urgent warning based on the near Earth solar wind condition.