SH052-02
New Plasma Physics Pushing Closer to the Sun with PSP/SWEAP

Wednesday, 16 December 2020: 10:06
Virtual
Kristopher Gregory Klein1, Justin Christophe Kasper2, Kelly E Korreck3, Anthony W Case3, Michael Louis Stevens3, Davin E Larson4, Phyllis L Whittlesey5, Roberto Livi5, Jasper S Halekas6, Stuart D Bale7 and PSP/SWEAP Instrument Team, (1)University of Arizona, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, Tucson, AZ, United States, (2)University of Michigan, Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering, Ann Arbor, MI, United States, (3)Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA, United States, (4)Space Sciences Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, United States, (5)Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States, (6)University of Iowa, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa City, IA, United States, (7)University of California Berkeley, Space Sciences Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, United States
Recorded Presentation
Abstract:
NASA's Parker Solar Probe (PSP), successfully launched in August 2018, has reached within 20 solar radii of the Sun's surface and will work its way inward to perihelion of 9.86 solar radii by 2024 through a series of seven Venus gravity assists. By measuring the Sun’s extended atmosphere, PSP's four instrument suites address the primary science goals of tracing the flow of energy from the corona to the solar wind, understanding the heating of the solar corona, exploring the mechanisms that accelerate the solar wind, and unveiling the mechanisms of coronal mass ejections and energetic particle acceleration. The Solar Wind Electrons, Alphas, and Protons (SWEAP) instrument suite, including the Solar Probe Cup (SPC) and the Solar Probe Analyzers (SPAN-i and SPAN-e), are designed to provide detailed in situ measurements of the thermal plasma conditions in this previously unexplored environment. An overview of insights from the SWEAP suite will be highlighted in this talk, including studies of small-scale plasma processes, such as magnetic field reversals and reconnection, turbulent dissipation and kinetic instabilities, and studies of large-scale structures, including flux ropes, the heliospheric current sheet, and the Alfven critical surface, and implications for our understanding of the evolution of the young solar wind.
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