Chris Owen (UCL)

Solar Orbiter was launched in February 2020, and has now completed the first 4 perihelia of its nominal mission phase.  Mission science goals include establishing and understanding the links between processes occurring at the Sun and their consequences for the nature of the solar wind in the inner heliosphere, as well as furthering our knowledge of the intrinsic physics of the solar wind and the solar atmosphere themselves.  A significant volume of science data has been accumulated by the 10 payload instruments, including novel data recorded by the 3 separate sensors which, together with a central DPU, comprise the Solar Wind Analyser (SWA) suite, for which I have served as Principal Investigator since the mission was selected by ESA in 2008.  Between them, these sensors, the Electron Analyser System, the Proton-Alpha Sensor and the Heavy Ion Sensor, make measurements of 3D velocity distribution functions of solar wind electron, proton and alpha particle populations, together with abundant heavy ions such as O6+ and ion charge states such as Fe9+ or Fe10+.  In this seminar I will summarise some recent results using data from one or more of the 3 SWA sensors, and illustrate the quality of the data and their contribution to achieving the mission science goals.  These include the availability of high time cadence observations which offer unique possibilities for resolving plasma kinetic processes at small scales in the solar wind.  Combining with observations from other instruments on the platform, and from other missions, I will also discuss work to establish the origin of the solar wind stream passing the spacecraft and the physical processes driving its release.