The Solar Orbiter magnetometer

Solar Orbiter: A mission update

ESA's Solar Orbiter mission will determine in situ the properties of fields and particles in the unexplored near-Sun heliosphere in three dimensions, investigate remotely the fine-scale structures and events in the magnetically coupled layers of the Sun's atmosphere, identify through near-corotation the links between activity on the solar surface and the resulting evolution of the inner heliosp...

Solar Polar Orbiter: A Solar Sail Technology Reference Study

An assessment is presented of a Solar Polar Orbiter mission as a Technology Reference Study. The goal is to focus the development of strategically important technologies of potential relevance to future science missions. The technology is solar sailing, and so the use of solar sail propulsion is, thus, defined a priori. The primary mission architecture utilizes maximum Soyuz Fregat 2-1b launch ...

A high energy telescope for the Solar Orbiter

A concept for a highly integrated High Energy Telescope with neutron detection capabilities (HETn) is under development. In the current design for implementation on a spinning platform, the instrument consists of one solid-state detector telescope with coincidence electronics. The instrument further includes a CsI scintillator that is read out by photo-diodes. A 30 g plastic scintillator will o...

Solar Orbiter Will Process Data Onboard Using Xilinx FPGAs

Pioneer Venus Orbiter observations of a solar wind quasi-invariant

The recently suggested solar wind quasi-invariant [ QI ≡ (B/8π)/(ρv/2)] is a combination of magnetic field strength B, plasma density ρ and solar wind speed v. Measured in the solar wind near the Earth, the median value of QI was shown to be a reliable index of solar activity for the 28 year period holding a linear relation with sunspot numbers (SSN) with a high correlation coefficient (cc) of ...