• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.95-104
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• 2020

Properties of plasmas that constitute the plasma sheet in the near-Earth magnetotail vary according to the solar wind conditions and location in the tail. In this case study, we present multi-spacecraft observations by Cluster that show a transition of plasma sheet from cold, dense to hot, tenuous state. The transition was associated with the passage of a spatial boundary that separates the plasma sheet into two regions with cold, dense and hot, tenuous plasmas. Ion phase space distributions show that the cold, dense ions have a Kappa distribution while the hot, tenuous ions have a Maxwellian distribution, implying that they have different origins or are produced by different thermalization processes. The transition boundary separated the plasma sheet in the dawn-dusk direction, and slowly moved toward the dawn flank. The hot, tenuous plasmas filled the central region while the cold, dense plasmas filled the outer region. The hot, tenuous plasmas were moving toward the Earth, pushing the cold, dense plasmas toward the flank. Different types of dynamical processes can be generated in each region, which can affect the development of geomagnetic activities.

• Vacuum Magazine
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.4-9
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• 2017

Dusty plasmas consisting of electrons, ions, neutral gas molecules, and small solid-state 'dust' particles are ubiquitous. Examples include plasma processing, fusion plasmas, polar mesospheric clouds, Saturn's rings, comet tails, and protoplanetary disks. Since Voyager I and II discovered dusty plasmas in our solar system, dusty plasmas have been extensively studied from space & basic sciences to semiconductor & display industries. Here, a brief review on dusty plasma research is given and some remarkable results are introduced.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.96.1-96.1
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• 2012

Various electromagnetic fluctuations are observed in the upstream of Earth's bow shock. Properties of plasmas are important in determining the development of the fluctuations. In this study we analyze the phase space distribution functions of plasmas measured by the Cluster spacecraft to understand how the fluctuations develop. Plasmas in the upstream of Earth's bow shock often consist of multiple components, especially when the fluctuations exist. In addition to the solar wind beams, backstreaming ion beams and diffuse ions are also often observed separately or simultaneously. The solar wind beams are not much perturbed even within the fluctuations. The diffuse ions are more than 10 times hotter than the solar wind beams and the backstreaming beams intermediate between them. The distribution functions of the diffuse and backstreaming ions are anisotropic to the magnetic field. Thus, they may be responsible for the fluctuations associated with temperature anisotropy. We will discuss about the thermalization processes and the relationship between the fluctuations and plasmas.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.41-52
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• 1999

Near-earth space is composed of plasmas which embed a number of plasma waves. Space plasmas consist of electrons and multi-ion that determine local wave propagation characteristics. In multi-ion plasmas, it is difficult to find out analytic solutions from the dispersion relation in general. In this work, we have developed a model with an arbitrary magnetic field and density as well as multi-ion plasmas. This model allows us to investigate how plasma waves behave when they propagate along realistic magnetic field lines, which are assumed by IGRF(International Geomagnetic Reference Field). The results are found to be useful for the analysis of the in situ observational data in space. For instance, if waves are assumed to propagate into the polar region, from the equatorial region, our model quantitatively show how polarization is altered along earth travel path.

• Bulletin of the Korean Space Science Society
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.40-40
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• 2003

When the magnetotail is disturbed by an impulsive input such as the substorm onset, compressional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves play an important role in delivering perturbed energy and exciting various wave modes and currents. The plasmasheet, in which relatively hot plasmas exist, is surrounded by relatively cold plasmas at the plasma sheet boundary layer (PSBL) and the equatorial plasmasphere. Since the Alfven speed significantly varies near these regions, the compressional waves are expected to undergo mode conversion by inhomogeneity at the boundary between cold and hot plasma regions. We investigate how the initial compressional MHD wave energy is reflected, transmitted, and absorbed across that boundary by adopting the invariant imbedding method (IIM) which gives the exact reflection, transmission, and absorption coefficients without any theoretical approximations for given frequencies and wave numbers. The IIM method is very useful in quantifying the reflection and transmission of compressional waves in the sense that we can calculate how much fast mode wave energy is delievered into shear Alfven waves or field-aligned currents. Our results show that strongly localized absorption occurs at the boundary region. This feature suggests that localized field-aligned currents can be impulsively excited at such boundary regions by any compressional disturbances, which is highly associated with impulsive auroral brightening at the substorm onset. We compare our results with previous studies in cold inhomogeneous plasmas.

• Bulletin of the Korean Space Science Society
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• 2004.04a
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• pp.35-35
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• 2004

Inhomogeneity Is important in wave coupling and mode conversion. We numerically examine the conversion of extraordinary(X) waves into upper hybrid(UH) waves in inhomogeneous plasmas by using a three-dimensional multi-fluid numerical model. A one-dimensional Inhomogeneous density profile is assumed in a cold and collisionless plasma. The density gradient is taken to be perpendicular to the magnetic field. An impulsive input is assumed to excite the X waves in the inhomogeneous box model. (omitted)

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.111-118
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• 1998

A method to determine normal vectors for boundaries of plasmas with a series of data acquired from a single spacecraft is investigated. The determination of the normal vector is possible through a set of Rankine-Hugoniot(R-H) relations that are conser-vation relations of plasmas across a boundary. It is assumed that the boundary is planar and that the structure of the boundary is not varing in the rest frame of plasmas. The present method utilizes a complete set of R-H relations and provieds self-consistent predictions of the plasma densities, bulk velocities, and temperatures a s well as mag-netic fields. It is expected that the present method provides a more accurate normal vector than the previous methods which employ only subsets of the available R-H relations.

• Bulletin of the Korean Space Science Society
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• 2011.04a
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• pp.29.2-29.2
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• 2011

Earth's bow shock is a transition layer across which properties of plasmas change irreversibly. Although some features of the bow shock are well described by continuities of fluxes of various macroscopic quantities, particle dynamics across the transition layer is very complicated. Observed phase space distributions show multiple ion beams and partially thermalized ions around the transition layer. In some cases, both hot magnetosheath ions and cold solar wind ions simultaneously exist in the magnetosheath. Electrons around the transition layer usually have flat-top distributions with temperature anisotropy. From the observed properties of the phase space distributions we will discuss thermalization processes that occur across the shock transition.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 1988

Electron beam propagation in a fully ionized plasma has been studied using a one-dimensional particle simulation model. We compare the results of electrostatic simulations to those of electromagnetic simulations. The electrostatic results show the essential features of beam-plasma interactions. It is found that the return currents are enhanced by the beam-plasma instability which accelerates ambinet plasmas. The results also show the heating of ambient plasmas and the trapping of plasmas due to the locally generated electric field. The electromagnetic simulations show much the same results as the electrostatic simulations do. The level of the radiation generated by the same non-relativistic beam is slightly higher than the noise level. We discuss the results in context in context of the heating of coronal plasma during solar flares.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.311-315
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• 2014

In this study, we investigated the effect of space plasmas on the floating potential variation of a low-altitude, polar-orbiting satellite using the Langmuir Probe (LP) measurement onboard the STSAT-1 spacecraft. We focused on small potential drops, for which the estimation of plasma density and temperature from LP is available. The floating potential varied according to the variations of plasma density and temperature, similar to the previously reported observations. Most of the potential drops occurred around the nightside auroral region. However, unlike the previous studies where large potential drops were observed with the precipitation of auroral electrons, the potential drops occurred before or after the precipitation of auroral electrons. Statistical analysis shows that the potential drops have good correlation with the temperature increase of cold electrons, which suggests the small potential drops be mainly controlled by the cold ionospheric plasmas.