Potential Use of Observations of Interplanetary Scintillation (IPS) and Faraday Rotation (FR) in Support of the Solar Orbiter and Solar Probe Plus Missions
Abstract
The Solar Orbiter (SO) and Solar Probe Plus (SPP) spacecraft (both due to be launched in 2018) are missions intended to have close encounters with the Sun. Their overarching goals are to investigate the Sun-heliosphere connections by remotely-sensing and/or directly sampling the near-Sun coronal and inner-heliosphere plasma and by flying closer-in to the Sun than any previous mission (with the exception of MESSENGER and Helios). In particular, SPP will fly deep into the solar corona reaching 10 solar radii at its closest orbital perihelion. Such complex missions will only be undertaking full science in bursts due to telemetry constraints and abilities to make contact with the spacecraft and thus much forward planning is needed, especially for SO. Therefore, both missions will strongly benefit from long-term context information for the observational planning stages and connection science, using other spacecraft further out from the Sun that may be still in operation (e.g. STEREO-A, SOHO, DSCOVR, etc…) as well as ground-based observations from Earth. The techniques of interplanetary scintillation (IPS) and Faraday rotation (FR), applied to the corona, and the inner heliosphere, can provide additional global and local context information in the form of several plasma parameters related to the velocity, density, and magnetic field, especially via tomographic/modelling combinations. Here, we highlight to the wider communities some of these capabilities and potential for context provision as well as joint science opportunities (particularly at higher-frequency IPS and inner-coronal FR) ahead of the two missions being launched.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016AGUFMSH53A..09B
- Keywords:
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- 7509 Corona;
- SOLAR PHYSICS;
- ASTROPHYSICS;
- AND ASTRONOMYDE: 7534 Radio emissions;
- SOLAR PHYSICS;
- ASTROPHYSICS;
- AND ASTRONOMYDE: 7829 Kinetic waves and instabilities;
- SPACE PLASMA PHYSICSDE: 7845 Particle acceleration;
- SPACE PLASMA PHYSICS