Prof. Yoshizumi Miyoshi is an internationally renowned researcher and an expert scientist in magnetospheric physics and space weather, particularly in the dynamics of the radiation belts and their impact on the atmosphere through energetic electron precipitation.

Prof. Miyoshi obtained his PhD at the Graduate School of Science at Tohoku University in Japan in 2001. He is currently the director of the Center for Integrated Data Science at the Institute of Space-Earth Environmental Research at Nagoya University in Japan. He is also the project scientist of JAXA’s geospace exploration project called ARASE. Prof. Miyoshi’s research interests cover a remarkably broad range, as illustrated by the variety of topics in his 431 publications to date with a total of over 10,000 citations.

Prof. Miyoshi is an international leader in the observational study of radiation belts and has made world-class contributions to this topic. His investigations address fundamentally important physical problems by using data from a combination of different satellites and ground-based supporting measurements, and simulations. In a pioneer study to identify the origin of MeV electrons in the outer belt, Prof. Miyoshi has shown that chorus waves can populate the outer belts with MeV electrons. He also demonstrated, for the first time, the energetic electron precipitation by EMIC waves using satellite and ground-based observations, as well as theoretical estimations. The result indicates the importance of considering the pitch angle scattering by EMIC waves on the loss of MeV electrons. Prof. Miyoshi developed a theory that pulsating aurora and energetic electron precipitation are the same phenomena and demonstrated that they contribute to significant ozone destruction in the middle atmosphere. Finally, on a more practical space weather application, he found that Alfvenic fluctuations in high-speed streams originating from solar coronal holes cause continuous chorus wave generation and accelerations of MeV electrons through prolonged substorms. Based on these findings, he established a model and a probabilistic forecast algorithm for MeV electrons in radiation belts.

Prof. Miyoshi has significantly advanced space weather science and forecasting by significantly improving our understanding of the physics of the radiation belts and their impact on the atmosphere, as well as the development of practical space weather applications derived from his research. For these key contributions, Prof. Miyoshi is awarded the 2024 Kristian Birkeland Medal for Space Weather and Space Climate.