• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.90.1-90.1
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• 2013

To better understand the physics underlying the eruption of prominences in solar active regions, we studied eruption processes of two active prominences located in the active region NOAA 11261 using multi-wavelength observational data with high temporal and spatial resolution. Specifically, we examined (1) the temporal variation of morphology and plasma properties of the two active prominences, (2) magnetic fields and their evolution on the photospheric surface underneath the prominences, and (3) the time profiles and locations of radio, EUV, and soft/hard X-ray emissions produced by the M9.3 flare related to the prominence eruption. As a result, we found that: (1) a prominence F1 began to erupt and expand as the abrupt and intense EUV brightening occurred in the localized region underneath the western part of F1 at 03:45 UT prior to the peak time of the M9.3 flare, (2) F1 split into two parts: i.e., the western part asymmetrically erupted by producing the M9.3 flare with microwave source motions along the magnetic polarity inversion line between the two flare ribbons, while the eastern part coalesced into a pre-existing prominence F2, (3) F2 became unstable due to the coalescence with the eastern part of F1, and then it partially erupted with clockwise untwisting motions.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.46.2-46.2
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• 2018

The active region NOAA AR 12673 is the most flare productive active region in the solar cycle 24. On 2017 September 07, it produced an X1.3 flare, three M-class, and several C-class flares. We successfully observed several C-class flares from 16:50 UT to 22:00 UT using the 1.6m Goode Solar Telescope (GST; formerly NST) at Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO). The GST provides us with unprecedented high-resolution data of the Sun since 2009. Interestingly, we observed the active region in He I D3 and 10830 lines simultaneously. The data shows several interesting features: (1) D3 emission seems to be much weaker than 10830 emission around 21:29 UT; (2) a small loop seen in 10830 is moving upward and is brightened around 21:16 UT, but it is not clear in D3; (3) there are waves in the penumbra seen in 10830 line center; (4) there is a jet with twisting motion. In this presentation, we will give the results of our analysis and interpretations.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.41.1-41.1
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• 2019

The stability analysis of coronal magnetic structures is important for studying the initiation of solar flares and eruptions. In order to understand the flare onset process, we first reconstructed the 3D coronal magnetic structures of active region 12371 with an M6.5 flare using a nonlinear force-free field (NLFFF) model based on vector magnetic fields. The NLFFFs successfully produce the observed sigmoidal structure which is composed of two branches of sheared arcade loops. The stability analysis were examined for three representative MHD instabilities: the kink, the torus, and the double arc instabilities. Our stability analysis shows that the two branches of sheared arcade loops are quite stable against the kink and torus instabilities, but unstable against the double arc instability before the flare occurrence. Finally, we discuss a probable onset process of the M6.5 flare.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.197-205
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• 2016

We investigated two flares in the solar atmosphere that occurred on June 3, 2012 and July 6, 2012 and caused propagation of Moreton and EIT waves. In the June 3 event, we noticed a filament winking which presumably was caused by the wave propagation from the flare. An interesting feature of this event is that there was a reflection of this wave by a coronal hole located alongside the wave propagation, but not all of this wave was transmitted by the coronal hole. Using the running difference method, we calculated the speed of Moreton and EIT waves and we found values of 926 km/s before the reflection and 276 km/s after the reflection (Moreton wave) and 1,127 km/s before the reflection and 46 km/s after the reflection (EIT wave). In the July 6 event, this phenomenon was accompanied by type II and type III solar radio bursts, and we also performed a running difference analysis to find the speed of the Moreton wave, obtaining a value of 988 km/s. The speed derived from the analysis of the solar radio burst was 1,200 km/s, and we assume that this difference was caused by the different nature of the motions in these phenomena, where the solar radio burst was caused by the propagating particles, not waves.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.82.2-82.2
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• 2011

Major solar eruptive events, consisting of both a large flare and a near simultaneous fast coronal mass ejection (CME), are the most powerful explosions in the solar system, releasing $10^{32}-10^{33}$ ergs in ${\sim}10^{3-4}\;s$. They are also the most powerful and energetic particle accelerators, producing ions up to tens of GeV and electrons up to hundreds of MeV. For flares, the accelerated particles often contain up to ~50% of the total energy released, a remarkable efficiency that indicates the particle acceleration is intimately related to the energy release process. Similar transient energy release/particle acceleration processes appear to occur elsewhere in the universe, in stellar flares, magnetars, etc. Escaping solar energetic particles (SEPs) appear to be accelerated by the shock wave driven by the fast CME at altitudes of ~1 40 $R_s$, with an efficiency of ~10%, about what is required for supernova shock waves to produce galactic cosmic rays. Thus, large solar eruptive events are our most accessible laboratory for understanding the fundamental physics of transient energy release and particle acceleration in cosmic magnetized plasmas. They also produce the most extreme space weather - the escaping SEPs are a major radiation hazard for spacecraft and humans in space, the intense flare photon emissions disrupt GPS and communications on the Earth, while the fast CME restructures the interplanetary medium with severe effects on the magnetospheres and atmospheres of the Earth and other planets. Here I review present observations of large solar eruptive events, and future space and ground-based measurements needed to understand the fundamental processes involved.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.36.1-36.1
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• 2011

It is generally believed that eruptive phenomena in the solar atmosphere such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) occur in the solar active regions with complex magnetic structures. Magnetic helicity has been recognized as a useful parameter to measure the complexity such as twists, kinks, and inter-linkages of magnetic field lines. The objective of this study is to understand a long-term (a few days) variation of magnetic helicity in active regions and its relationship with the energy buildup and instability leading to flares and CMEs. Statistical studies of flare productivity and magnetic helicity injection in about 400 active regions were carried out. The temporal variation of magnetic helicity injected through the photosphere of active regions was also examined related to 46 CMEs. The main findings in this study are as follows: (1) the study of magnetic helicity for active regions producing major flares and CMEs indicates that there is always a significant helicity injection through the active-region photosphere over a long period of 0.5 - a few days before the flares and CMEs; (2) for the 30 CMEs under investigation, it is found that there is a fairly good correlation (linear correlation coefficient of 0.71) between the average helicity injection in the CME-productive active regions and the CME speed. Beside the scientific contribution, a major impact of this study is the observational discovery of a characteristic variation pattern of magnetic helicity injection in flare/CME-productive active regions which can be used for the improvement of solar eruption forecasting.

• 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.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.spc1
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• pp.37-44
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• 2003

In this paper, we review recent studies on the magnetic helicity changes of solar active regions by photospheric horizontal motions. Recently, Chae(200l) developed a methodology to determine the magnetic helicity change rate via photospheric horizontal motions. We have applied this methodology to four cases: (1) NOAA AR 8100 which has a series of homologous X-ray flares, (2) three active regions which have four eruptive major X-ray flares, (3) NOAA AR 9236 which has three eruptive X-class flares, and (4) NOAA AR 8668 in which a large filament was under formation. As a result, we have found several interesting results. First, the rate of magnetic helicity injection strongly depends on an active region and its evolution. Its mean rate ranges from 4 to $17 {\times} 10^{40}\;Mx^2\;h^{-1}$. Especially when the homologous flares occurred and when the filament was formed, significant rates of magnetic helicity were continuously deposited in the corona via photospheric shear flows. Second, there is a strong positive correlation between the magnetic helicity accumulated during the flaring time interval of the homologous flares in AR 8100 and the GOES X-ray flux integrated over the flaring time. This indicates that the occurrence of a series of homologous flares is physically related to the accumulation of magnetic helicity in the corona by photospheric shearing motions. Third, impulsive helicity variations took place near the flaring times of some strong flares. These impulsive variations whose time scales are less than one hour are attributed to localized velocity kernels around the polarity inversion line. Fourth, considering the filament eruption associated with an X1.8 flare started about 10 minutes before the impulsive variation of the helicity change rate, we suggest that the impulsive helicity variation is not a cause of the eruptive solar flare but its result. Finally, we discuss the physical implications on these results and our future plans.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.85.2-85.2
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• 2011

A new infrared spectro-polarimeter was installed in 2008 onto the Solar Flare Telescope of NAOJ in the Mitaka headquarters. The Solar Flare Telescope had been operated previously as a filter-based magnetograph and obtained vector magnetograms of active regions with the Fe I 630.3nm line during 1992 - 2005. The aim of this new instrument is to measure the distribution of magnetic helicity over the whole Sun and for an extended period with high magnetic sensitivity in the infrared wavelengths. This spectro-polarimter is able to obtain polarizations in both photospheric and chromospheric layers. In order to take full Stokes profiles, we observe Fe I 1564.8 nm and He I 1083.0 nm lines (with the neighboring photospheric Si line) for the photospheric and chromospheric magnetic field vectors, respectively. The infrared detector of this instrument is a $640{\times}512$-pixel InGaAs camera produced by a Belgian company Xenics. The frame rate of the camera is 90 frames/sec. The 640-pixel row of this camera is set along the spectrograph slit of the polarimeter. Since the slit only covers the solar hemisphere, a full disk map is obtained by raster scanning the solar disk twice. A magnetic map is made of about $1200{\times}1200$ pixels with a pixel size of 1.8 arcsec. It generally takes 1.5 hours to scan the whole Sun. Although some issues on the instrument calibration still remain, a few maps of the whole Sun at the two wavelengths are now taken daily. In this presentation, we will introduce the instrument and present some observational results.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.479-486
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• 2009

We studied the solar proton events (SPEs) associated with coronal mass ejections (CMEs) during the solar cycle 23 (1997-2006). Using 63 SPE dataset, we investigated the relationship among SPE, flare, and CME, and found that (1) SPE rise time and duration time depend on CME speed and the earthward direction parameter of the CME, and (2) the SPE peak intensity depends on CME speed and X-ray Flare intensity. While inspecting the relation between SPE peak intensity and the direction parameter, we found there are two groups: first group consists of large six SPEs (> 10,000 pfu at > 10 MeV proton channel of GOES satellite) and shows strong correlation (cc = 0.65) between SPE peak intensity and CME direction parameter. The second group has a weak intensity and shows poor correlation between SPE peak intensity and the direction parameter (cc = 0.01). By investigating characteristics of the first group, we found that all the SPEs are associated with very fast halo CME (> 1400km/s) and also they are mostly located at central region and within ${\pm}20^{\circ}$ latitude and ${\pm}30^{\circ}$ longitude strip.