Sangyun Lee

Earth's Exosphere and its impact on Magnetosphere dynamics

Earth's exosphere is composed primarily of light gases, such as atomic hydrogen. The density of the exosphere and its variability are influenced by solar and geomagnetic activity. Atomic hydrogen plays a critical role in plasma dynamics within Earth's magnetosphere through charge exchange interactions with ions, leading to the production of energetic neutral atoms (ENA) and soft X-ray emissions.

Wave-particle interaction in Earth's magnetosphere and solar wind

Whistler-mode chorus waves, generated by electron temperature anisotropy, play a significant role in the acceleration of electrons in the outer radiation belt and in auroral precipitation within Earth's magnetosphere. Langmuir waves, upper hybrid mode waves, and whistler waves are excited by unstable electron velocity distributions, such as parallel beams, ring beams, and anisotropic distributions. These waves are key contributors to type II and III solar radio bursts through maser instability mechanisms. Particle-In-Cell (PIC) simulation code is used for this research.

Postdoctoral Researcher

NASA/GSFC & CUA - Greenbelt, Maryland

November 2023 - Present

Research in Earth's exosphere developing a dynamic model (MATE) working with Dr. Hyunju Connor

Postdoctoral Researcher

West Virginia University - Morgantown, West Virginia

February 2020 - October 2023

Research in electron outer radiation belts using DREAM3D code working with Prof. Weichao Tu

Postdoctoral Researcher

SaTReC, KAIST - Daejeon, South Korea

March 2019 - December 2019