Understanding coronal heating and solar wind acceleration: Case for in situ near-Sun measurements
Creators
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McComas, D. J.1
- Velli, M.2, 3
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Lewis, W. S.1
- Acton, L. W.4
- Balat-Pichelin, M.
- Bothmer, V.5
- Dirling, R. B., Jr.6
- Feldman, W. C.7
- Gloeckler, G.8
- Habbal, S. R.9
- Hassler, D. M.1
- Mann, I.10
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Matthaeus, W. H.11
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McNutt, R. L., Jr.12
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Mewaldt, R. A.13
- Murphy, N.3
- Ofman, L.14
- Sittler, E. C.15
- Smith, C. W.16
- Zurbuchen, T. H.17
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1.
Southwest Research Institute
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2.
University of Florence
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3.
Jet Propulsion Lab
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4.
Montana State University
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5.
University of Göttingen
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6.
Science Applications International Corporation (United States)
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7.
Los Alamos National Laboratory
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8.
University of Maryland, College Park
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9.
University of Hawaii at Manoa
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10.
Kobe University
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11.
University of Delaware
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12.
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
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13.
California Institute of Technology
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14.
Catholic University of America
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15.
Goddard Space Flight Center
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16.
University of New Hampshire
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17.
University of Michigan–Ann Arbor
Abstract
The solar wind has been measured directly from 0.3 AU outward, and the Sun's atmosphere has been imaged from the photosphere out through the corona. These observations have significantly advanced our understanding of the influence of the Sun's varying magnetic field on the structure and dynamics of the corona and the solar wind. However, how the corona is heated and accelerated to produce the solar wind remains a mystery. Answering these fundamental questions requires in situ observations near the Sun, from a few solar radii (R_S) out to ∼20 R_S, where the internal, magnetic, and turbulent energy in the coronal plasma is channeled into the bulk energy of the supersonic solar wind. A mission to make such observations has long been a top priority of the solar and space physics community. The recent Solar Probe study has proven that such a mission is technically feasible and can be accomplished within reasonable resources.
Additional Information
© 2007 American Geophysical Union. Received 5 January 2006; revised 18 August 2006; accepted 24 October 2006; published 17 March 2007. The authors gratefully acknowledge the contributions of the many individuals who provided programmatic and engineering support for the Solar Probe mission definition study. Special thanks are due to Ken Potocki, Doug Eng, and the APL engineering team; to Haydee Maldonado, the Solar Probe study lead, and to Chris St. Cyr, LWS Senior Scientist, both at the Goddard Space Flight Center; and to Lika Guhathakurta, the LWS Program Scientist at NASA Headquarters. Thanks also to Cesar Carrasco (University of Texas at El Paso), Justin Edmonson (University of Michigan), Stuart Bale (University of California), Bill Kurth (University of Iowa), Scott Weidner (SwRI), and Celeste Satter (JPL) for their help with a variety of technical issues. Thanks also to Rob Ebert (SwRI) for help in preparing the glossary. The Editor responsible for this paper was Peter Riley. He thanks Nathan Schwadron and an anonymous technical reviewer and one anonymous cross-disciplinary reviewer.Attached Files
Published - 2007-05.pdf
Files
2007-05.pdf
Additional details
Identifiers
- Eprint ID
- 56036
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20150324-143333230
Dates
- Created
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2015-03-24Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-10Created from EPrint's last_modified field
Caltech Custom Metadata
- Caltech groups
- Space Radiation Laboratory
- Other Numbering System Name
- Space Radiation Laboratory
- Other Numbering System Identifier
- 2007-05