Letters of Intent received in 2019

LoI 2021-2082
New Solar Telescopes and the era of Multi-Messenger Solar Physics

Date: 16 August 2021 to 19 August 2021
Category: GA Symposium
Location: Busan, Korea, Rep of
Contact: Alexandra Tritschler (ali@nso.edu)
Coordinating division: Division E Sun and Heliosphere
Other divisions: Division B Facilities, Technologies and Data Science
Division G Stars and Stellar Physics
Chair of SOC: Alexandra Tritschler (NSO)
Chair of LOC: None (None)

 

Topics

• New, large solar facilities coming online
• Synergies between remote sensing and in-situ
facilities: a new era of Multi-Messenger Solar Physics
• Astrophysical challenges that will be addressed with
the new facilities in the coming decade:
o Heating of the outer solar atmosphere;
o Generation of the solar wind;
o Magnetic connectivity from the Sun to the
Heliosphere;
o Magnetic field generation, activity, and
instability;
o Acceleration and transport of energetic particles;
o Magneto-hydrodynamical turbulence and
reconnection
• New techniques to handling, visualization, parameter
extraction from large volume, multi-dimensional data

 

Rationale

A stunning array of new facilities to study the Sun and the heliosphere will be coming to completion and fruition in the next few years. For example, the largest ever optical/NIR telescope, the 4-meter Daniel K Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST), is scheduled for commissioning of operations in 2020; the flagship encounter mission Parker Solar Probe (PSP) has launched in August 2018; and the joint ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter mission hosting both remote-sensing and in-situ instruments will launch in February 2020.

By the time of the IAU 2021 General Assembly, these and other novel facilities will have started to provide a slew of new data addressing outstanding problems in solar and stellar astrophysics, including the creation and sustenance of the hot outer atmosphere and stellar winds; the generation and annihilation of magnetic field in plasmas of very high electrical conductivity; the role of magnetohydrodynamic turbulence in creating surface dynamo; etc. In particular, the two encounter missions PSP and Solar Orbiter will provide in-situ measurements of the properties of the inner heliospheric plasma, including local electric and magnetic fields; by combining their data with the novel coronal diagnostics made available by ground-based facilities like DKIST, UCoMP and EOVSA, we will be in a position to study the relationship between processes observed in the solar atmosphere, and their consequences in the interplanetary medium. This “multi-messenger” approach will herald a new decade of solar physics studies, of much relevance to multiple astrophysical fields, including, e.g., the connections between exo-planets and their parent stars. The volume and complexity of the resulting data sets will require continued efforts to develop novel techniques for data analysis, mining and modeling, and necessitate a large level of cooperation between facilities in order to best exploit their combined diagnostic potential. All of these aspects will be addressed during the Symposium.

Several solar-related IAU symposia have been held in the last decade, but this will be the first one to provide a comprehensive view of the capabilities of these new facilities in a synergistic way. The symposium will build on previous IAU efforts to this end, including the 2012 GA Special Session on “Science with Large Solar Telescopes”, which anticipated issues related to the operation and scientific use of next-generation facilities; and the Focus Meetings on “Global Coordination of International Astrophysics and Heliophysics Activities”, held at both the 2015 and 2018 GAs, which discussed ways to optimize the return of large facilities via broad collaborations and activities.

SOC: The following colleagues have agreed to be part of the SOC. We are further discussing with a number of colleagues to define a wider regional (including the host country) and thematic representation.

Dipankar Banerjee (India)
Gianna Cauzzi (Italy/US)
Alina Donea (AUS)
Dale Gary (US)
Louise Harra (UK/CH)
Daniel Mueller (D)
Alexander Nindos (GR)
Nour Raouafi (US)