The Sun to the Earth -- and Beyond A Decadal Research Strategy in Solar and Space Physics (2003) / Chapter Skim
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Executive Summary
Executive Summary
Pages 1-21
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it During the 1 990s, space physicists peered inside the Sun with Doppler maying techniques to obtain the first glimpses of mechanisms responsible for the solar magnetic dynamo. Further, they imaged the solar atmosphere from visible to x-ray wavelengths to expose dramatically the complex interaction between the ionized gas and the magnetic field, which drives both the solar wind and energetic solar events such as flares and coronal mass ejections that strongly affect Earth.
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Why is the solar corona several hundred times hotter than its underlying visible surface, and how is the supersonic solar wind produced? · Challenge 2: Understanding heliospheric structure, the distribution ot magnetic fields and matter throughout the solar system, and the interaction of the solar atmosphere with the local interstellar medium.
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The recommendations presented in the main report are listed also in this Executive Summary. AN INTEGRATED RESEARCH STRATEGY FOR SOLAR AND SPACE PHYSICS The integrated research strategy proposed by the Solar and Space Physcs Survey Committee is based on recommendations from four technical study panels regarding research initiatives in the following subject areas: solar and heliospheric physics, solar wind-magnetosphere interactions, atmosphere-ionosphere-magnetosphere interactions, and theory, computation, and data exploration.
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program, a Solar Probe mission, and gave it high priority for implementation in the decade 2003-2013. The programs in the vitality category are those that relate to the infrastructure for solar and space physics research; they are regarded by the committee as essential for the health and vigor of the field.
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, these missions constitute a synergistic approach to the study of the inner heliosphere that will involve coordinated observations of the solar interior and atmosphere and the formation, release, evolution, and propagation of coronal mass ejections toward Earth. Later in the decade covered by the survey, overlapping investigations by the SDO, the ATST, and Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS)
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Stereo Magnetospheric Imager Frequency-Agile Solar Radiotelescope Fifty to a hundred nanosatellites to create dynamic images of magnetic fields and charged particles in the near magnetic tail of Earth. Three spacecraft with solar sails positioned at 0.98 AU to provide earlier warning than L1 monitors and to measure the spatial and temporal structure of CMEs, shocks, and solar-wind streams.
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Multiagency program to provide a systems-oriented approach to theory, modeling, and simulation that will ultimately provide continuous models from the solar interior to the outer heliosphere.
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To understand the genesis of the heliospheric system, it is necessary to determine the mechanisms by which the solar corona is heated and the solar wind is accelerated and to understand how the solar wind evolves in the innermost heliosphere. These objectives will be addressed by a Solar Probe mission.
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HI jpm [:1 gec Ill~lgs network ·mms Misdo 181 stereo Subsolar b · Iws res./tech (Iws r/t) 121 explorers suborbital ~ mo&da 1~ sr&t FIGURE ES.2 Recommended phasing of the highest-priority NASA missions if budget augmentation for Solar Probe is not obtained.
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Traveling to the planets andbeyond. New propulsion technologies are needed to rapidly propel spacecraft to the outer fringes of the solar system and into the local interstellar medium.
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Highly miniaturized sensors of charged and neutral particles and photons will be essential elements of instruments for new solar and space physics missions. Recommendation: NASA should continue to assign high priority, through its recently established new instrument development programs, to supporting the development of advanced instrumentation for solar and space physics missions and programs.
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Recent breakthroughs in adaptive optics have eliminated the major technical impediments to making solar observations with sufficient resolution to measure the pressure scale height, the photon mean free path, and the fundamental magnetic structure size. Recommendation: The NSF should continue to fund the technology development program for the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope.
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, an i nteragency effort whose goal is to ach ieve, with i n a 1 0-year period, "an active, synergistic, interagency system to provide timely, accurate, and rel iable space envi ronment observations, specifications, and forecasts."3 In 1999, NASA initiated an important complementary program, Living With a Star, which over the next decade and beyond will carry out targeted basic research on space weather. Crucial components of the national space weather effort continue to be provided by the operational programs of the Department of Defense and NOAA.
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Creative and cutting-edge research in modeling the solar-terrestrial environment is under way. Under the auspices of the NSWP, models that are thought to be potentially useful for space weather applications can be submitted to the Community Coordinated Modeling Center (currently located at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)
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All data acquired should contain error estimates, which are required by data assimilation models. Recommendation: A new, centralized database of extreme space weather conditions should be created that covers as many of the relevant space weather parameters as possible.
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Recommendation: Clear policies should be developed that describe government and industry roles, rights, and responsibilities in space weather activities. Such policies are necessary to optimize the benefits of the national investments, public and private, that are being made.
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Recommendation: NASA should undertake an independent outside review of its existing policies and approaches regarding the support of solar and space physics research in academic institutions, with the objective of enabling the nation's colleges and universities to be stronger contributors to this research field.
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The solar and space physics research community is especially dependent on the availability of a wide range of suborbital and orbital flight capabilities to carry out cutting-edge science programs, to validate new instruments, and to train new scientists. Suborbital flight opportunities are very important for advancing many key aspects of future solar and space physics research objectives and for enabling the contributions that such opportunities make to education.
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Recommendation: The principal agencies involved in solar and space physics research NASA, NSF, NOAA, and DOD should devise and implement a management process that will ensure a high level of coordination in the field and that will disseminate the results of such a coordinated effort including data, research opportunities, and related matters widely and frequently to the research community.
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The committee notes that the Panel on the Sun and Heliospheric Physics recommends as its highest-priority new initiative a Solar Probe mission whose primary objective is to make in situ measurements of the innermost heliosphere. The panel does not consider remote sensing a top priority on a first mission to the near-Sun region, although it does allow as a possible secondary objective remote sensing of the photospheric magnetic field in the polar regions.
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, National Space Weather Program Strategic Plan, FCM-P30-1995, OFCM, Washington, D.C., August 1 995.
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