• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.21
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• pp.4.1-4.1
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• 1996

• Bulletin of the Korean Space Science Society
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• 2010.04a
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• pp.38.2-38.2
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• 2010

We have examined the occurrence probability of solar proton events (SPEs) and their peak fluxes depending three flare parameters (X-ray peak flux, longitude, and impulsive time). For this we used NOAA SPEs from 1976 to 2006, and their associated X-ray flare data. As a result, we selected 166 proton events that were associated with major flares; 85 events associated with X-class flares and 81 events associated with M-class flares. Especially the occurrence probability strongly depends on these three parameters. In addition, the relationship between X-ray flare peak flux and proton peak flux as well as its correlation coefficient are strongly dependent on longitude and impulsive time. Among NOAA SPEs from 1997 to 2006, most of the events are related to both flares and CMEs but a few fraction of events (5/93) are only related with CMEs. We carefully identified the sources of these events using LASCO CME catalog and SOHO MDI data. Specifically, we examined the directions of CMEs related with the events and the history of active regions. As a result, we were able to determine active regions which are likely to produce SPEs without ambiguity as well as their longitudes at the time of SPEs by considering solar rotation rate. From this study, we found that the longitudes of five active regions are all between $90^{\circ}W$ and $120^{\circ}W$. When the flare peak time is assume to be the CME event time, we confirmed that the dependence of their rise times (proton peak time - flare peak time) on longitude are consistent with the previous empirical formula. These results imply that five events should be also associated with flares which were not observed because they occurred from back-side. Now we are examining the occurrence probability of SPEs depending on CME parameters. Finally, we will discuss the future prospects on the development of an empirical SPE forecast model based on the information of flares and 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.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.65.1-65.1
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• 2013

The 2011 August 09 Flare is one of the largest X-ray flares of Sunspot Cycle 24 to attract a lot of attention for its various activities detected in coronal images. In this study we concern ourselves mostly on information of high energy electrons produced during this flare provided by hard X ray data from the Reuven Ramaty High-Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) and radio data from the Korean Solar Radio Burst Locator (KSRBL) and Ondrejov. EUV images obtained by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on board the Solar Dynamic Observatory are used to provide the context of magnetic reconnection. In our results, (1) HXR spectra have a rich spectral morphology. Initially it could be fit by one thermal component (T~30MK) and one single power law nonthermal spectrum, but later a better fit could be made by introducing an additional thermal component (T~55 MK). (2) Time delays between the KSRBL burst and the RHESSI hard X-ray emission were found which are more obvious at low frequencies and insignificant at high frequencies. (3) The HXR source lies in the core of the quadrupolar active region. In our interpretation based on AIA 94 A images, the outer part of the active region erupted to be blown out, leaving the intense hard X-ray emission concentrated in the core. We relate the appearance of the second thermal component to the evolution of the AIA 171 and 94 A images. The time delays of microwave peaks to HXR peaks are interpreted as indicating presence of trapped electrons in larger closed magnetic loops. With these result we conclude that the hard X ray and microwaves are due to impulsive acceleration in the low and high heights and a sigmoidal reconnection scenario.

• Bulletin of the Korean Space Science Society
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• 2010.04a
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• pp.38.3-39
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• 2010

While major solar proton events (SPEs) come from the coronal mass eject (CME)-driven shocks in solar wind, there are many evidences that potentiality of CMEs to generate SPEs depends on its early evolution near the Sun and on different solar activities observed around the CME liftoff time. To decipher origin of SPE release, we have investigated onset time comparison of the SPE with CME, metric type II radio burst, and hard X-ray flare. For this, we select 30 SPEs observed from 1997 to 2006 by using the particle instrument ERNE onboard SOHO, which allows proton flux anisotropy measurement in the energy range ~10 - 50MeV. Onset time of the SPEs is inferred by considering the energy-dependent proton transport time. As results, we found that (1) SPE onset time is comparable to that of type II but later than type III onset time and HXR start time, (2) SPE onset time is mostly later than the peak time of HXR flare, (3) almost half of the SPE onsets occurred after the HXR emission, and (4) there are two groups of CME height at the onset time of SPE; one is the height below 5 Rs (low corona) and the other is above 5Rs (high corona). In this talk, we will present the onset time comparison and discuss about the origin of the SPE onset.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.spc1
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• pp.63-73
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• 2003

Solar flares present a number of radiative characteristics indicative of kinetic processes of high energy particles. Proper understanding of the kinetic processes, however, relies on how well we can separate the acceleration from transport characteristics. In this paper, we discuss microwave and hard X-ray bursts as a powerful tool in investigating the acceleration and transport of high energy electrons. After a brief review of the studies devoted to the kinetic process of solar flare particles, we cast them into a simple formulation which allows us to handle the injection, trap, and precipitation of flare electrons self-consistently. The formulation is then taken as a basis for interpreting and analyzing a set of impulsive and gradual bursts occurred on 2001 April 6 observed with the Owens Valley Solar Array, and HXT/WBS onboard Yohkoh satellite. We quantify the acceleration, trap, and precipitation processes during each burst in terms of relevant time scales, and also determine ambient density and magnetic field. Our result suggests that it should be the acceleration property, in particular, electron pitch angle distribution, rather than the trap condition, that is mainly responsible for the distinctive properties of the impulsive and gradual flares.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.143-149
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• 2002

In this paper we present a methodology to derive the temporal change of the magnetic shear angle from a series of vector magnetograms, with a high time cadence. This method looks for the minimum change of the shear angle between a pair of magnetograms, free from the $180^{\circ}$ ambiguity, and then accumulates this change over many successive pairs to derive the temporal change of magnetic shear. This methodology will work well if only the successive magnetograms occurred in an active region are well aligned and its helicity sign is reasonably determined. We have applied this methodology to a set of vector magnetograms of NOAA Active Region 9661 on October 19, 2001 by the new digital magnetograph at the Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO). For this work we considered well aligned magnetograms whose cross-correlation values are larger than 0.95. As a result, we have confirmed the recent report of Wang et al. that there was the abrupt shear change associated with the X1.6 flare. It is also demonstrated that the shear change map can be an useful tool to highlight the local areas that experienced the abrupt shear change. Finally, we suggest that this observation should be a direct support of the emergence of sheared magnetic fields.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.47-55
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• 2000

Nonpotential characteristics of magnetic fields in AR 5747 are examined using Mees Solar Observatory magnetograms taken on Oct. 20, 1989 to Oct. 22, 1989. The active region showed such violent flaring activities during the observational span that strong X-ray flares took place including a 2B/X3 flare. The magnetogram data were obtained by the Haleakala Stokes Polarimeter which provides simultaneous Stokes profiles of the Fe I doublet 6301.5 and 6302.5. A nonlinear least square method was adopted to derive the magnetic field vectors from the observed Stokes profiles and a multi-step ambiguity solution method was employed to resolve the $180^{\circ}$ ambiguity. From the ambiguity-resolved vector magnetograms, we have derived a set of physical quantities characterizing the field configuration, which are magnetic flux, vertical current density, magnetic shear angle, angular shear, magnetic free energy density, a measure of magnetic field discontinuity MAD and linear force-free coefficient. Our results show that (1) magnetic nonpotentiality is concentrated near the inversion line in the flaring sites, (2) all the physical parameters decreased with time, which may imply that the active region was in a relaxation stage of its evolution, (3) 2-D MAD has similar patterns with other nonpotential parameters, demonstrating that it can be utilized as an useful parameter of flare producing active region, and (4) the linear force-free coefficient could be a evolutionary indicator with a merit as a global nonpotential parameter.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.29 no.spc1
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• pp.331-332
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• 1996

We present 3 rare subtypes of the FFSs observed with high temporal resolution at 4-frequency (1.42, 2.13, 2.84 and 4.2G GHz). The various FFSs occurred during the main and post-flare phase can demonstrate that coronal nonthermal electron acceleration/injection may go through the whole development process of flares, and deduce that there may exist the re-forming of loop-like structures in the post-flare phase, and the complex multi-type magnetic structures in corona.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.83.1-83.1
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• 2011

Solar flares are very spectacular, and are associated with various phenomena. Coronal shocks or disturbances are one of such flare-related phenomena. Although Moreton waves and X-ray waves are well explained with MHD first mode shocks propagating in the corona, there still remains a big problem on the nature of the waves, since they are very rare phenomena. On the other hand, EIT waves (or EUV waves) have been paid attention to as another phenomenon of coronal disturbances. However, the physical features (velocity, opening angle, and so on) are much different from those for Moreton waves and X-ray waves. We report detailed features of the coronal disturbances associated with the 2010 February 7 and the 2010 August 18 flares. For the former flare we analyzed the H-alpha images obtained by SMART at Hida Observatory, Kyoto University, Japan and by a flare telescope at National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, the X-rays images taken by Hinode/XRT, and the EUV images obtained by the both satellites of STEREO, and found the Moreton wave, X-ray wave, and EIT wave, simultaneously. In the latter flare, on the other hand, we observed a very fast EUV wave in EUV images taken by SDO/AIA. The propagating speed is comparable to the MHD first mode wave, while there is no obvious evidence of shocks for this flare. From these results, we discuss the nature of coronal disturbances.