Solar Orbiter's Coordinated Science Operations: Planning 6-monthly Encounters with a Star, Seen from Truly Unique Viewpoints

After a Cruise Phase of 21 months, Solar Orbiter entered its first scientific orbit end November 2021 after a Gravity Assist Manoeuvre (GAM) by the Earth. The spacecraft entered a highly elliptical orbit that brought it to its first close perihelion in March, at 0.32au from the Sun, and even closer in Oct 2022 (0.29au). Future GAMs by Venus will tilt the orbit out of the ecliptic plane, which will allow the first ever views on both solar poles.

Solar Orbiter's main goal is to study the connection between the Sun's activity and its effects in the heliosphere, incl. at Earth. Therefore, the mission goals hinge on coordinated observations of the full payload, six remote-sensing telescopes observing the dynamic Sun and 4 in-situ instruments measuring the solar wind surrounding the spacecraft. Instrument observations cannot be planned in isolation but are rather grouped in so-called Solar Orbiter Observing Programmes (SOOPs) tailored to the science questions we want to address during a particular opportunity. Also, Solar Orbiter's unique orbit around the Sun implies mission resources like downlink speed to greatly vary throughout the operations phase. This makes that science planning needs careful coordination and resource optimisation, in order to fully exploit the capabilities of this exciting mission.

We present the Mission's science operations concept and the observations taken or scheduled during the first year of Nominal Mission Phase, i.e., the first two orbits. By the time of the AGU, the spacecraft will have made its first two close encounters and will have most of the data down from these milestones.