• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.42.2-43
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• 2016

Electrostatic fluctuations near upper-hybrid frequency, which are sometimes accompanied by multiple-harmonic electron cyclotron frequency bands above and below the upper-hybrid frequency, are common occurrences in the Earth's radiation belt, as revealed through the twin Van Allen Probe spacecraft. In the literature upper-hybrid emissions are used for estimating the background electron density, which in turn can be used to determine the plasmapause locations, but the role of energetic electrons in generating such fluctuations has not been discussed. The present paper carries out detailed analyses of data from the Waves instrument, which is part of the Electric and Magnetic Field Instrument Suite and Integrated Science (EMFISIS) suite onboard the Van Allen Probes. Combined with theoretical calculation, it is demonstrated that the peak intensity associated with the upper-hybrid fluctuations is predominantly determined by tenuous but energetic electrons, and that denser and less energetic background electrons do not contribute much to the peak intensity. This finding shows that upper-hybrid fluctuations detected during quiet time are useful not only for the determination of the electron density, but also they contain information on the ambient energetic electron population as well.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.29-29
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• 2014

A fundamental problem in space physics is to explain the origin of energetic charged particles in space close to the Earth and the significant temporal variations of their flux. The particles are primarily electrons and protons although energetic heavy ions such as O+ are sometimes non-negligible. By "energetic" we mean a rather broad energy range of particles from a few tens of keV to well above MeV. Drastic variations of the particle fluxes (by >3 orders of magnitude) occur over both a short time scale like a few minutes and a long time scale like the 11-year sunspot cycle. In this talk I will focus on relativistic energy electrons (~MeV) trapped within the Earth's magnetosphere. They are a primary element of the space weather since they can cause damage to satellites, so often called "killer electrons". Considering that the source particles in both the solar wind and the ionosphere are relatively cold (~eV), the quasi-permanent existence of these very energetic particles close to the Earth has been a surprise to space physicists for decades. Complex electromagnetic processes such as wave-particle interactions within the magnetosphere are believed to play a major role in generating these killer electrons. While detailed physics remains an active research area, for this lecture I will introduce a synthesized picture of how solar activities are related to wave-particle interaction physics inside the magnetosphere. This can be applied to other astrophysical systems.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.145-158
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• 2022

The dynamics of the outer zone radiation belt has received a lot of attention mainly due to the correlation between the occurrence of enhancing relativistic electron flux and spacecraft operation anomalies or even failures (e.g., Baker et al. 1994). Relativistic electron events are often observed during great storms associated with ultra low frequency (ULF) waves. For example, a large buildup of relativistic electrons was observed during the great storm of March 24, 1991 (e.g., Li et al. 1993; Hudson et al. 1995; Mann et al. 2013). However, the dominant processes which accelerate magnetospheric radiation belt electrons to MeV energies are not well understood. In this paper, we present observations of Pc5 ULF waves in the recovery phase of the Bastille day storm of July 16, 2000 and electron and proton flux simultaneously oscillating with the same frequencies as the waves. The mechanism for the observed electron and proton flux modulations is examined using ground-based and satellite observations. During this storm time, multiple packets of discrete frequency Pc5 ULF waves appeared associated with energetic particle flux oscillations. We model the drift paths of electrons and protons to determine if the particles drift through the ULF wave to understand why some particle fluxes are modulated by the ULF waves and others are not. We also analyze the flux oscillations of electrons and protons as a function of energy to determine if the particle modulations are caused by a ULF wave drift resonance or advection of a particle density gradient. We suggest that the energetic electron and proton modulations by Pc5 ULF waves provide further evidence in support of the important role that ULF waves play in outer radiation belt dyanamics during storm times.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.247-253
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• 2013

It has long been known that the magnetospheric particles can precipitate into the atmosphere of the Earth. In this paper we examine such precipitation of energetic electrons using the data obtained from low-altitude polar orbiting satellite observations. We analyze the precipitating electron flux data for many periods selected from a total of 84 storm events identified for 2001-2012. The analysis includes the dependence of precipitation on the Kp index and the electron energy, for which we use three energies E1 > 30 keV, E2 > 100 keV, E3 > 300 keV. We find that the precipitation is best correlated with Kp after a time delay of < 3 hours. Most importantly, the correlation with Kp is notably tighter for lower energy than for higher energy in the sense that the lower energy precipitation flux increases more rapidly with Kp than does the higher energy precipitation flux. Based on this we suggest that the Kp index reflects excitation of a wave that is responsible for scattering of preferably lower energy electrons. The role of waves of other types should become increasingly important for higher energy, for which we suggest to rely on other indicators than Kp if one can identify such an indicator.

• Bulletin of the Korean Space Science Society
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.31.1-31.1
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• 2008

While some observations in the geomagnetic tail region supported electrons could be accelerated by reconnection processes, we still need more observation data to confirm electron acceleration in this region. Because most acceleration processes accompany strong pitch angle diffusion, if the electrons were accelerated in this region, strong energetic electron precipitation should be observed near earth on aurora oval. Even though there are several low altitude satellites observing electron precipitation, intense and small scale precipitation events have not been identified successfully. In this presentation, we will show an observation of strong energetic electron precipitation that might be analyzed by relativistic electron acceleration in the confined region. This event was observed by low altitude Korean STSAT-1, where intense several hundred keV electron precipitation was seen simultaneously with 10 keV electrons during storm time. In addition, we observed large magnetic field fluctuations and an ionospheric plasma depletion with FUV aurora emissions. Our observation implies relativistic electrons can be generated in the small area where Fermi acceleration might work.

• Bulletin of the Korean Space Science Society
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• 2006.10a
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• pp.52-52
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• 2006

Many spacecraft failures and anomalies have been attributed to energetic electrons in the Earth's magnetosphere. While the dynamics of these electrons have been studied extensively for several decades, the fundamental question of how they are accelerated is not fully resolved. Proposed theories have not been successful in explaining fast high energy increase such as REE (Relativistic electron enhancement). In this presentation, we show observations of energetic electron precipitation measured by the Korean satellite, STSAT-1 which simultaneously detect (100ev - 20 keV) and (170 - 360 keV) energy electrons at the 680 km orbit, when the RES event observed at the geosynchronous orbit on October 13, 2004. STSAT-1 observed intense electron precipitation in both energy ranges occurred in the midnight sector clearly demonstrating that electrons having wide energy band are injected from the plasma sheet. To make the balance between loss and injection, the injected electron flux should be also large. In this situation, the injected electrons can be trapped into the magnetosphere and produce REE, though they have low e-folding energies. We propose this plasma sheet injection might be the primary source of relativistic electron (1 MeV) flux increases.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2001.07c
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• pp.1682-1684
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• 2001

In removing the flue-gas using electrical discharge method, it is important to dissociate or ionize the atoms and molecules by the collisions with energetic electrons and it produces the radicals that are used to decompose the pollutants. For that purpose, a bidirectional pulsed voltage is used to produce lots of energetic electrons efficiently and increase the power efficiency. The simulation is performed with changing the pulsewidth under the fixed applied voltage. The particle-mesh model coupling the NGP(nearest-grid-point) to FEM(finite element method) is used to simulate the behavior of electrons and the spatio-temporal variation of the electric field for the streamer in discharge tube.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.81-87
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• 2012

The biodiesel production characteristics in a pulsed-corona plasma reactor has been investigated through parametric tests. Transesterification of rapeseed oil together with camelina oil was done with the change of such variables as voltage of power, molar ratio, KOH catalyst and temperature. The energetic electrons emitted from pulsed-corona plasma has contributed to the enhancement of yield on rapeseed oil in short time (15 min). The higher yield on camelina oil was observed in 5 min. The optimal parameters were shown as the voltage of 23 kV, the molar ratio of 5/1, the content of KOH catalyst of 0.6 wt% and the temperature of $28^{\circ}C$ under the rotating rate of spark gap of 900 rpm.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.44.2-44.2
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• 2016

The solar wind electrons are made of three or four distinct components, which are core Maxwellian background, isotropic halo, and super-halo (and sometimes, highly field-aligned strahl component which can be considered as a fourth element). We put forth a steady-state model for the solar wind electrons by considering both the steady-state particle and wave kinetic equations. Since the steady-state solar wind electron VDFs and the steady-state wave fluctuation spectrum are related to each other, we also investigate the complete fluctuation spectra in the whistler and Langmuir frequency ranges by considering halo- and superhalo-like model electron VDFs. It is found that the energetic electrons make important contributions to the total emission spectrum. Based on this, we complete the steady-state model by considering both the whistler and Langmuir fluctuations. In particular, the Langmuir fluctuation plays an important role in the formation and maintenance of nonthermal electrons.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.43.1-43.1
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• 2018

Young pulsar wind nebulae, powered by energetic central pulsars, are often observed as bright extended sources in the X-ray band. They are believed to accelerate electrons and positrons to very high energy and can possibly explain the positron excess observed by Fermi and AMS. The electron distribution in these PWNe can be best studied by X-ray satellites because emission in the X-ray band is produced by direct synchrotron radiation of the electrons and positrons. We present NuSTAR studies of PWNe and discuss the implication. Future studies to help further our understanding of particle acceleration will be briefly discussed.