Web Seminar: Hunting solar wind origins: ESA/Solar Orbiter and NASA/Parker Solar Probe
Time: Wed 2020-04-29 14.15 - 15.00
Participating: Andris Vaivads
A web seminar by professor Andris Vaivads. The event will be hosted over Zoom with the following meeting adress:
https://kth-se.zoom.us/j/62166743331
The solar wind is a gas of charged particles called plasma, it is much hotter than the surface of the Sun, and it is continuously blowing in all directions from the Sun. The solar wind is interacting with the Earth magnetic field forming the Earth magnetosphere, it drives the space weather at Earth and other planets, and it interacts with the interstellar space forming the heliopause and termination shock. There are many open research questions about how the solar wind is formed, how it is heated and how does it interact with interstellar space and bodies in the solar system. Two spacecraft missions have been recently launched with the goal to study the source of the solar wind and how Sun drives the solar system with the help of solar wind. The NASA's Parker Solar Probe mission was launched 2018 and the ESA's Solar Orbiter mission was launched 2020. KTH has contributed to the instrumentation on the Solar Orbiter mission. Both missions go closer to the Sun and thus closer to the source of the solar wind but they have chosen different strategies for addressing the science questions. During the seminar some of the most important open questions of the solar wind will be presented. In addition, we present both missions and how they aim to address those questions, discussing differences and synergies between the missions. Some of the first important results from the Parker Solar Probe will be shown, as well as some of the "first light" observations from Solar Orbiter.