Solar Eruptive Events (SEE) Mission for the Next Solar Maximum

Major solar eruptive events consisting of both a large flare and a near simultaneous large fast coronal mass ejection (CME), are the most powerful explosions and also the most powerful and energetic particle accelerators in the solar system, producing solar energetic particles (SEPs) up to tens of GeV for ions and 10s-100s of MeV for electrons. The intense fluxes of escaping SEPs are a major hazard for humans in space and for spacecraft. Furthermore, the solar plasma ejected at high speed in the fast CME completely restructures the interplanetary medium, producing the most extreme space weather in geospace, at other planets, and in the heliosphere. Thus, the understanding of the flare/CME energy release process and of the related particle acceleration processes in SEEs is a major goal in Heliophysics. Here we present a concept for a Solar Eruptive Events (SEE) mission, consisting of a comprehensive set of advanced new instruments on the single spacecraft in low Earth orbit, that focus directly on the coronal energy release and particle acceleration in flares and CMEs. SEE will provide new focussing hard X-ray imaging spectroscopy of energetic electrons in the flare acceleration region, new energetic neutral atom (ENA) imaging spectroscopy of SEPs being accelerated by the CME at altitudes above 2 solar radii, gamma-ray imaging spectroscopy of flare-accelerated energetic ions, plus detailed EUV/UV/Soft X-ray diagnostics of the plasmas density, temperature, and mass motions in the energy release and particle acceleration regions. Together with ground-based measurements of coronal magnetic fields from ATST, FASR, and COSMO, SEE will enable major breakthroughs in our understanding of the fundamental physical processes involved in major solar eruptive events.