Speaker
Description
Solar Energetic Particles (SEPs) constitute an important contributor to the characterization of the space environment. They are emitted from the Sun in association with solar flares and Coronal Mass ejection (CME)-driven shock waves. SEP radiation storms may have durations from a period of hours to days or even weeks and have a large range of energy spectrum profiles. These events pose a threat to modern technology strongly relying on spacecraft, are a serious radiation hazard to humans in space, and are additionally of concern for avionics and commercial aviation in extreme circumstances. However, after decades of observations of SEPs from space-based observatories, relevant questions on particle injection, transport, and acceleration remain open. Understanding how particles are accelerated at the Sun to high energies (even relativistic) and how these particles propagate from their acceleration site to fill the heliosphere is one of the key questions that the Solar Orbiter (SoLO) ESA mission has set out to answer by means of the Energetic Particle Detector (EPD) measurements. Furthermore, the NASA’s Parker Solar Probe (PSP) mission also addresses key questions regarding energetic particles, utilizing measurements by the Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun (ISOIS) instrument suite very close to the Sun, in a region that no spacecraft has been before. In this talk, a review of the new, exciting measurements of energetic particles in the near-Sun environment obtained by these two pioneering missions and the exciting, new results derived will be presented. How SoLO/EPD and PSP/ISOIS observations are advancing our current knowledge and understanding of the energetic particle environment close to the Sun (e.g. SEPs, cosmic rays, Corotating Interaction Region -associated suprathermal ions) will be reviewed.
| Subcategory | Review |
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