We have performed the flat-fielding correction for the Hα full-disk monitoring system of KASI (Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute), which is installed in the Solar Flare Telescope (SOFT) at the top of Bohyun Mountain. For this, we used a new method developed by Chae (2004), to determine the flat pattern from a set of relatively shifted images. Using this method, we successfully obtained the flat pattern for Hα full-disk observations and compared our result with the image observed in Catania Astrophysical Observatory. The method that we used in this study seems to be quite powerful to obtain the flat image for solar observations. In near future, we will apply this method for the flat-fielding correction of all solar imaging instruments in KASI.
We have successfully developed the KASI (Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute) Solar Imaging Spectrograph (KSIS), which has been originally upgraded from the KASI solar spectrograph that was able to record solar spectra for a given slit region and to inspect the response function of narrow band filters. A prototype KSIS was developed in 2004 by using a scanning mirror in front of the spectrograph slit and a SBIG ST-8XE CCD camera. Its main disadvantage is that it took a long time (about 13 minutes) to scan a whole active region. In this work, we have upgraded the KSIS by installing a much faster Dalsa 1M15 CCD camera, which gives a data acquisition time of about 2.5 minutes. The software for KSIS was also improved for the new CCD camera on the basis of component-based development method. We have successfully made a test observation for a simple and small active region (AR10910) using the improved KSIS system. Our observations show that H-alpha images for several wavelengths have typical features in a sunspot as well as a H-alpha centerline image is quite similar to a BBSO H-alpha image, demonstrating the capability of the KSIS system.
X-ray plasma ejections often occurred around the impulsive phases of solar flares and have been well observed by the SXT aboard Yohkoh. Though the X-ray plasma ejections show various morphological shapes, there has been no attempt at classifying the morphological groups for a large sample of the X-ray plasma ejections. In this study, we have classified 137 X-ray plasma ejections according to their shape for the first time. Our classification criteria are as follows: (1) a loop type shows ejecting plasma with the shape of loops, (2) a spray type has a continuous stream of plasma without showing any typical shape, (3) a jet type shows collimated motions of plasma, (4) a confined ejection shows limited motions of plasma near a flaring site. As a result, we classified the flare-associated X-ray plasma ejections into five groups as follows: loop-type (60 events), spray-type (40 events), jet-type (11 events), confined ejection (18 events), and others (8 events). As an illustration, we presented time sequence images of several typical events to discuss their morphological characteristics, speed, CME association, and magnetic field configuration. We found that the jet-type events tend to have higher speeds and better association with CMEs than those of the loop-type events. It is also found that the CME association (11/11) of the jet-type events is much higher than that (5/18) of the confined ejections. These facts imply that the physical characteristics of the X-ray plasma ejections are closely associated with magnetic field configurations near the reconnection regions.