Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences (May 2023)
Seven Sisters: a mission to study fundamental plasma physical processes in the solar wind and a pathfinder to advance space weather prediction
- Katariina Nykyri,
- Xuanye Ma,
- Brandon Burkholder,
- Yu-Lun Liou,
- Roberto Cuéllar,
- Shiva Kavosi,
- Joseph E. Borovsky,
- Jeff Parker,
- Mitchell Rosen,
- Lauren De Moudt,
- Robert Wilkes Ebert,
- Keiichi Ogasawara,
- Merav Opher,
- David Gary Sibeck,
- Simone Di Matteo,
- Simone Di Matteo,
- Nicholeen Viall,
- Samantha Wallace,
- Therese M. Jorgensen,
- Michael Hesse,
- Matthew J. West,
- Laxman Adhikari,
- Matthew R. Argall,
- Jan Egedal,
- Frederick Wilder,
- Jeffrey Broll,
- Gangkai Poh,
- Simon Wing,
- Christopher Russell
Affiliations
- Katariina Nykyri
- Department of Physical Sciences and Center for Space and Atmospheric Research, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, FL, United States
- Xuanye Ma
- Department of Physical Sciences and Center for Space and Atmospheric Research, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, FL, United States
- Brandon Burkholder
- UMBC Goddard Planetary Heliophysics Institute, Baltimore, MD, United States
- Yu-Lun Liou
- Department of Physical Sciences and Center for Space and Atmospheric Research, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, FL, United States
- Roberto Cuéllar
- Department of Physical Sciences and Center for Space and Atmospheric Research, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, FL, United States
- Shiva Kavosi
- Department of Physical Sciences and Center for Space and Atmospheric Research, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, FL, United States
- Joseph E. Borovsky
- Space Science Institute, Boulder, CO, United States
- Jeff Parker
- Advanced Space LLC, Westminster, CO, United States
- Mitchell Rosen
- Advanced Space LLC, Westminster, CO, United States
- Lauren De Moudt
- Advanced Space LLC, Westminster, CO, United States
- Robert Wilkes Ebert
- Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX, United States
- Keiichi Ogasawara
- Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX, United States
- Merav Opher
- Department of Astronomy, Boston University, Boston, MA, United States
- David Gary Sibeck
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States
- Simone Di Matteo
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States
- Simone Di Matteo
- Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, United States
- Nicholeen Viall
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States
- Samantha Wallace
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States
- Therese M. Jorgensen
- NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, United States
- Michael Hesse
- NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, United States
- Matthew J. West
- 0Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO, United States
- Laxman Adhikari
- 1The Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research, The University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, AL, United States
- Matthew R. Argall
- 2Space Science Center, The University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, United States
- Jan Egedal
- 3Department of Physics, The University of Wisconsin Madison, Madison, WI, United States
- Frederick Wilder
- 4Department of Physics, The University of Texas, Arlington, TX, United States
- Jeffrey Broll
- 5Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, United States
- Gangkai Poh
- Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, United States
- Simon Wing
- 6John Hopkins University, Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, United States
- Christopher Russell
- 7Department of Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3389/fspas.2023.1179344
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 10
Abstract
This paper summarizes the Seven Sisters solar wind mission concept and the outstanding science questions motivating the mission science objectives. The Seven Sisters mission includes seven individual spacecraft designed to uncover fundamental physical processes in the solar wind and provides up to ≈ 2 days of advanced space weather warnings for 550 Earth days during the mission. The mission will collect critical measurements of the thermal and suprathermal plasma and magnetic fields, utilizing, for the first time, Venus–Sun Lagrange points. The multi-spacecraft configuration makes it possible to distinguish between spatial and temporal changes, define gradients, and quantify cross-scale transport in solar wind structures. Seven Sisters will determine the 3-D structure of the solar wind and its transient phenomena and their evolution in the inner heliosphere. Data from the Seven Sisters mission will allow the identification of physical processes and the quantification of the relative contribution of different mechanisms responsible for suprathermal particle energization in the solar wind.
Keywords
- solar wind
- coronal mass ejections
- stream interaction regions
- heliospheric current sheet
- particle acceleration
- magnetic reconnection
