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4th Solar Orbiter Workshop
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- The Fourth Solar Orbiter workshop went off without a hitch and was a tremendous success. The Peaks Resort was an outstanding location. If you have any questions or need any information about the conference or Solar Orbiter 4, please contact: chris dot stcyr at nasa dot gov
The Fourth Solar Orbiter workshop is organized around sessions addressing the mission's main scientific objectives and the synergy with Solar Probe Plus and other space- and ground-based observations. Solar Orbiter is one of the key missions in our quest to understand how the Sun creates and controls the heliosphere.
The four primary scientific objectives of the mission are:
- How and where do the solar wind plasma and magnetic field originate in the corona?
- How do solar transients drive heliospheric variability?
- How do solar eruptions produce energetic particle radiation that fills the heliosphere?
- How does the solar dynamo work and drive connections between the Sun and the heliosphere?
Recent scientific findings relevant to these objectives are solicited, particularly those that exploit linkages between remote sensing and in situ observations. Solar Orbiter is competing for the first M-class launch slot in ESA's Cosmic Vision Programme. If confirmed in June 2011, it is scheduled for a January 2017 launch, and its operational orbit will have a minimum perihelion distance of 0.28 A.U. By the end of its nominal seven-year mission, it will achieve +/- 25 degrees heliolatitude and, after an additional three years of extended mission, +/-34 degrees.