Seven Sisters: a mission to study fundamental plasma physical processes in the solar wind and a pathfinder to advance space weather prediction

Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences

Astronomy and Space Sciences

Lauren De Moudt¹  Mitchell Rosen¹  Jeff Parker¹  Gangkai Poh²  Merav Opher³  Christopher Russell⁴  Yu-Lun Liou⁵  Shiva Kavosi⁵  Xuanye Ma⁵  Roberto Cuéllar⁵  Katariina Nykyri⁵  Frederick Wilder⁶  Jan Egedal⁷  Simon Wing⁸  Jeffrey Broll⁹  Michael Hesse^1,10  Therese M. Jorgensen^1,10  Samantha Wallace^1,11  Nicholeen Viall^1,11  David Gary Sibeck^1,11  Simone Di Matteo^1,12  Matthew J. West^1,13  Robert Wilkes Ebert^1,14  Keiichi Ogasawara^1,14  Matthew R. Argall^1,15  Joseph E. Borovsky^1,16  Laxman Adhikari^1,17  Brandon Burkholder^1,18 

[1] Advanced Space LLC, Westminster, CO, United States;Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, United States;Department of Astronomy, Boston University, Boston, MA, United States;Department of Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States;Department of Physical Sciences and Center for Space and Atmospheric Research, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, FL, United States;Department of Physics, The University of Texas, Arlington, TX, United States;Department of Physics, The University of Wisconsin Madison, Madison, WI, United States;John Hopkins University, Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, United States;Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, United States;NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, United States;NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States;NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States;Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, United States;Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO, United States;Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX, United States;Space Science Center, The University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, United States;Space Science Institute, Boulder, CO, United States;The Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research, The University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, AL, United States;UMBC Goddard Planetary Heliophysics Institute, Baltimore, MD, United States;

关键词: solar wind;    coronal mass ejections;    stream interaction regions;    heliospheric current sheet;    particle acceleration;    magnetic reconnection;    turbulence;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fspas.2023.1179344

 received in 2023-03-04, accepted in 2023-05-02,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

This paper summarizes the Seven Sisters solar wind mission concept and the outstanding science questions motivating the mission science objectives. The Seven Sisters mission includes seven individual spacecraft designed to uncover fundamental physical processes in the solar wind and provides up to ≈ 2 days of advanced space weather warnings for 550 Earth days during the mission. The mission will collect critical measurements of the thermal and suprathermal plasma and magnetic fields, utilizing, for the first time, Venus–Sun Lagrange points. The multi-spacecraft configuration makes it possible to distinguish between spatial and temporal changes, define gradients, and quantify cross-scale transport in solar wind structures. Seven Sisters will determine the 3-D structure of the solar wind and its transient phenomena and their evolution in the inner heliosphere. Data from the Seven Sisters mission will allow the identification of physical processes and the quantification of the relative contribution of different mechanisms responsible for suprathermal particle energization in the solar wind.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2023 Nykyri, Ma, Burkholder, Liou, Cuéllar, Kavosi, Borovsky, Parker, Rosen, De Moudt, Ebert, Ogasawara, Opher, Sibeck, Di Matteo, Viall, Wallace, Jorgensen, Hesse, West, Adhikari, Argall, Egedal, Wilder, Broll, Poh, Wing and Russell.