We investigate the infrared variability of carbon stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Our sample consists of 11,134 carbon stars identified in both visual and infrared bands. Among these, 1,184 objects are known Mira variables based on the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment III (OGLE-III) observations. We study the infrared variability of the entire sample using the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) photometric data spanning the past 16 years, including the AllWISE multiepoch data and the Near-Earth Object WISE Reactivation (NEOWISE-R) 2024 final data release. We generate light curves using WISE observations in the W1 and W2 bands and compute Lomb-Scargle periodograms for all sample stars. From the WISE light curves, we derive reliable variability parameters for 1,615 objects. Among these, we identify 672 objects exhibiting clear Mira-like variations: 445 of these are previously known Miras from OGLE-III, while 227 are candidates for new Mira variables identified from the WISE data. We establish period-magnitude and period-color relations in both visual and infrared bands for the known Miras and the newly identified candidates from WISE data. We anticipate that these relations will serve as valuable references for studying carbon stars in other galaxies, including the Milky Way.
Atmospheric characterization has become a crucial area of study for exoplanets. The exoplanets known as ultra-hot Jupiters (UHJs) offer a natural laboratory for studying extreme atmospheric physics that cannot be observed in the solar system. One way to analyze their atmospheres is by transmission spectroscopy. However, it can be challenging to obtain such information because a planet’s signal is too weak compared to that of its host star, resulting in the planetary contribution to the observed spectrum being negligible. Therefore, the minimum observational requirements must be assessed first to distinguish the planetary signal from the stellar one to study these planets. In this context, we obtained the transmission spectra of UHJs TOI-1431 b and WASP-189 b by observing each exoplanet for one night with BOAO Echelle Spectrograph (BOES) on the 1.8 m telescope at Bohyunsan Optical Astronomy Observatory (BOAO). We searched for various chemical species by cross-correlating the exoplanetary spectra with model synthetic spectra. Our search for atmospheric signal returned a detection confidence level less than 3 σ for both targets. Therefore, we applied model injection to recover the atmospheric signals of the planets and assessed the minimum signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) to achieve 5 σ detection. During our search, we successfully recovered the planet signals with detection significances of 5.11 σ after a 750% injection of the model signal for TOI-1431 b and 5.02 σ for a 90% injection forWASP-189 b. These signal injection exercises suggest that a higher S/N of the transmission spectra is required to detect the planetary absorption features, and this can be done by stacking data from the observations of more than three cycles of the transit of a planet with a small-scale height such as WASP-189 b at BOAO facilities.
Solar energetic particle (SEP) events, driven by solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs), are occasionally accompanied by ground level enhancements (GLEs), detected by neutron monitors. While GLEs represent only a subset of SEP events, their occurrence may provide insight into the acceleration and propagation mechanisms of SEPs. In this study, we conducted a statistical analysis of 122 SEP events from 1997 to 2023, including 16 events associated with GLE and 106 without, using elemental composition data from the ACE/SIS instrument and X-ray fluence data from GOES/XRS. The results show that SEP events with GLE exhibit significantly higher fluences of SIS elements (He, C, N, O, Ne, Mg, Si) than those without, particularly at high energy channels. Notably, the fluences of carbon and oxygen were particularly enhanced in SEP events associated with GLE, suggesting a potential role for these elements in the generation of GLEs. A strong correlation (average r ≈ 0.75) was observed between the X-ray fluence of associated solar flares and the elemental fluences in SEP events with GLE, whereas a weaker correlation (average r ≈ 0.32–0.40) was found for SEP events without GLE. These findings imply that the presence of a GLE is linked to distinct acceleration conditions and enhanced ion production, particularly of light ions with large charge-to-mass ratios. This study contributes to a better understanding of SEP composition, GLE-associated mechanisms, and their relevance to space weather forecasting and radiation hazard assessments.
The Challan instrument is a solar full-disk imaging spectroscopic telescope planned to be installed at three sites with a 120-degree longitudinal difference, enabling continuous 24-hour observations of the Sun. It will take data every 2.5 min with a spatial resolution of 2–3′′ and a spectral resolving power (R) of >43,000 in Hα and Ca ii 8542 Å bands simultaneously. Challan is composed of two modules, each dedicated to a specific waveband. This modular design is beneficial in minimizing the scattered light and simplifying the structure and engineering. The primary scientific goal of Challan is to investigate solar flares and filament eruptions. It is also expected to detect small-scale events in the solar chromosphere. In 2025, Challan will be installed at the Big Bear Solar Observatory for test observational runs, followed by scientific runs in 2026.
We investigated three fan-shaped jets observed above sunspot light bridges or nearby sunspot regions. The study aimed to explore the dynamics and physical properties of jets’ features that appear as blob-like structures at the tips of the jets, which we call ‘dark blobs’. A transparent region is observed beneath the dark blobs, creating a visible gap between the dark blobs and the trailing body of the jets. These phenomena were studied in chromospheric and transition region imaging and spectral high-resolution co-observations from the Visible Imaging Spectrometer of the Goode Solar Telescope at the Big Bear Solar Observatory and the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS), together with data from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory. We analyzed the jets’ morphology and fine structure. We obtained the spatial scale and the dynamics of the dark blobs that are seen mostly in the wings of the Hα line and have a cross-section of about 0.2′′–0.3′′. The dark blobs and the transparent regions are seen bright (in emission) in the IRIS slit-jaw 1330 Å, 1400 Å, and AIA 304 Å images. The IRIS Si iv 1394 Å spectrum of the brightenings showed blue-shifted emission of about 16 km s−1 with non-thermal velocities of up to 40 km s−1. We also estimated the electron density of the blue-shifted brightenings to be 1012.1±0.2 cm−3. Our findings likely suggest that we detect the observational signatures of shock waves that generate and/or contribute to the evolution of fan-shaped jets.
We present a comprehensive solar flare forecast model with a probability and a statistically significant range of daily peak X-ray flux. For this, we consider μ-corrected total unsigned radial magnetic fluxes from the SOHO/MDI and SDO/HMI, and flare lists from GOES from 1996 to 2021. Our model predicts two types of forecast results when a magnetic flux of an active region (AR) is given. First, using a relationship between magnetic fluxes and flaring rates, a probability of C1.0 or greater flares and a probability of M1.0 or greater flares within a day are predicted respectively. Second, a mean (μ) and standard deviation (σ) of daily peak X-ray fluxes are given from a historical distribution between magnetic fluxes and daily peak X-ray fluxes. Using the mean and standard deviation, we provide the statistical range of possible flare sizes. We verify two forecast results by using various performance metrics and investigate the performance depending on the climatology event rate. Based on the metric values, our model can give a better performance than the climatology forecast. Solar flares are considered to be caused by specific triggers and physical mechanisms that have not yet been precisely identified. In addition, there is another perspective that the size of the flare that will occur due to a trigger is close to random because the flaring loop is in a self-organized critical state. Our model can give the simplest forecasting results considering these two perspectives.