Takuo Tsuda, Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Informatics and Engineering.

Geophysics: Space and upper atmospheric physics

Takuo Tsuda is conducting research on aurora and the Earth's atmosphere. Auroral emission is caused by particles such as electrons and ions entering the Earth's atmosphere from the space. Auroral particles are thought to induce not only emission but also many kinds of other effects in the atmosphere.

Of particular interest is the effect of auroral particles on atmospheric composition, in particular metallic species such as Na and Fe. The metallic species are important for radio propagation for radio communication and broadcast but their effect it is not well known. So, Tsuda and colleagues are analyzing optical spectroscopic data from satellite observations. They found that Na variation can be induced through atmospheric chemical processes triggered by auroral particles. This indicates an important link between the space-related phenomena, that is auroral particles, and atmospheric composition and chemical processes. This research is expected to be important for understanding radio propagation environment.

Further information

Takuo Tsuda, Assistant Professor
Graduate School of Informatics and Engineering, The University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo.

Takuo Tsuda laboratory:http://ttt01.cei.uec.ac.jp/
Research Highlight:Aurora-induced atmospheric composition change: Global sodium variation revealed by optical spectroscopic observations from the space