SH036-0018
Italian SWA-Solar Orbiter Working Group on “Kinetic Processes”
Monday, 14 December 2020
Poster
Francesco Valentini1, Francesco Califano2, Enrico Camporeale3, Vincenzo Carbone4, Silvio Sergio Cerri5, Raffaella D'Amicis6, Daniele Del Sarto7, Luca Franci8, Maria Elena Innocenti9, Simone Landi10, Fabio Lepreti11, Francesco Malara12, Lorenzo Matteini13, Giuseppina Nigro14, Emanuele Papini10, Francesco Pegoraro15, Silvia Perri16, Oreste Pezzi17, Francesco Pucci18, Alessandro Retino19, Sergio Servidio20, Adriana Settino4, Luca Sorriso-Valvo21, Daniele Telloni22, Antonio Vecchio23, Pierluigi Veltri24, Andrea Verdini25, Denise Perrone26, Roberto Bruno27, Rossana De Marco28, Francesco Pecora20, Domenico Trotta11, Giovanni Lapenta29, Maria Federica Marcucci30, Vamsee Krishna Jagarlamudi31 and Giuseppina Carnevale32, (1)University of Calabria, Calabria, Italy, (2)University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy, (3)University of Colorado, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, Boulder, United States, (4)University of Calabria, physics, Calabria, Italy, (5)Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, United States, (6)INAF-IAPS, Rome, Italy, (7)University of Lorraine Nancy, Nancy Cedex, France, (8)Queen Mary University of London, School of Physics and Astronomy, London, United Kingdom, (9)University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, (10)Università degli Studi di Firenze, Florence, Italy, (11)University of Calabria, Rende, Italy, (12)Univ Della Calabria, Cosenza, Italy, (13)Imperial College London, Department of Physics, London, United Kingdom, (14)Dipartimento di Fisica, Università della Calabria (Italy), Rende, Cosenza, Italy, (15)University of Pisa, Physics Department, Pisa, Italy, (16)Dipartimento di Fisica, Fisica, Arcavacata di Rende, Italy, (17)Gran Sasso Science Institute, L'Aquila, Italy, (18)KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, (19)Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas, Palaiseau, France, (20)Università della Calabria, Department of Physics, Rende, Italy, (21)ISTP-CNR, Bari, Bari, Italy, (22)INAF-OATO, Turin, Italy, (23)LESIA, Observatoire de Paris, Université PSL, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Université de Paris, Meudon, France, (24)Universita' della Calabria, Rende, Italy, (25)LESIA, Observatoire de Paris-Meudon & LPP, Universite Paris 6/7, Paris, Paris, France, (26)ASI, Rome, Italy, (27)INAF-IFSI, Rome, Italy, (28)INAF-Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali, Roma, Italy, (29)Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Department of Mathematics, Leuven, Belgium, (30)INAF - IAPS, Rome, Italy, (31)LPC2E, CNRS and University of Orléans, Orléans, France, (32)Università di L'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy
Abstract:
Since inter-particle collisions are to a large extent negligible, the solar wind plasma is typically observed in a state far from thermodynamic equilibrium, meaning that the velocity distributions of particles of different species display significant deviations from a single Maxwellian. These deviations retain the whole history of the interaction of particles with the turbulent electromagnetic fields. Simultaneous measurements of fields and particle velocity distributions at kinetic scales made at different radial distances can help in tracking this history backwards allowing one to identify the physical mechanisms at play to heat and accelerate particles in the interplanetary medium close to the Sun and all along solar wind expansion.
In this scenario, data from the Solar Wind Analyzer instrument onboard the ESA Solar Orbiter mission are very promising in addressing the kinetic physics of protons, ions and electrons in the solar wind close to the Sun. The Italian SWA-Solar Orbiter Working Group entitled “Kinetic Processes” has been formed in May 2020 and gathers scientists from several Italian and international institutions and with different expertises (theoretical modeling, observational data analysis and numerical simulations), who convene periodically to discuss these scientific subjects.
The main scientific goals of this working group are (i) to maximize the scientific return of Solar Orbiter data within the Heliospheric communities and (ii) to identify open scientific questions and relevant physical problems for which Solar Orbiter data could play a key role and help scientists to find answers and explanations.
Exploitation of combined measurements from the in-situ instruments (SWA, MAG, EPD and RPW) onboard Solar Orbiter will provide the unique opportunity of attacking fundamental plasma physics processes responsible for energy exchanges between fluctuations and particles.
In this Abstract, we will present some of the activities carried on within the Italian SWA-Solar Orbiter WG “Kinetic Processes” in the last few months, with the aim of engaging the broader scientific community into the discussion and in preparation of the release of the first Orbiter data.
