Ryuho Kataoka

Ryuho Kataoka has been studying space physics, such as aurora and space weather, as the PI of Aurora3D project (stereoscopy of aurora, since 2010), Aurora4D project (Japan's literature survey of ancient red aurora, since 2015), and AuroraX project (international all-sky camera network over Antarctica, since 2022). New SMRAI project is now ongoing to use the AI emulator for auroral space weather forecast (Kataoka et al., 2024). Funded by HBF, he is also designing and building tiny all-sky camera system for auroral observations on the Earth and Mars. 

The most recent paper is Japan's citizen science for auroral observation (Kataoka et al., 2024). When RK sabbatical-visited at OIST for a year, he wrote a book “Extreme Space Weather” (2022) , targeting graduate students and researchers in a hurry. This book gives an overview of the underlying physics, datasets on complex space weather phenomena, historical event studies traveling back in time, the latest advancements in simulation research, forecasting challenges, and the potential ramifications for future lunar and Mars exploration. Also at OIST at that time, for example, he wrote a paper about Starlink satellites' atmospheric reentry during a magnetic storm (Kataoka et al., 2022).

Since 2018, RK has been working for SDGs-related teaching activities for elementary school students as the guest fellow of Seikei Gakuen ESD center. Since 2024, he has also been teaching space plasma physics for gradate students at the University of Tokyo. Citizen science activity is also going on via SNS.