Probing Solar Polar Regions

The magnetic fields and dynamical processes in the solar polar regions play a crucial role in the solar magnetic cycle and in supplying mass and energy to the fast solar wind, ultimately being vital in controlling solar activities and driving space weather. Despite numerous efforts to explore these regions, to date no imaging observations of the Sun’s poles have been achieved from vantage points out of the ecliptic plane, leaving their behavior and evolution poorly understood. This observation gap has left three top-level scientific questions unanswered: How does the solar dynamo work and drive the solar magnetic cycle? What drives the fast solar wind? How do space weather processes globally originate from the Sun and propagate throughout the solar system? The Solar Polar-orbit Observatory (SPO) mission, a solar polar exploration spacecraft, is proposed to address these three unanswered scientific questions by imaging the Sun’s poles from high heliolatitudes. In order to achieve its scientific goals, SPO will carry six remote-sensing and four <italic>in-situ</italic> instruments to measure the vector magnetic fields and Doppler velocity fields in the photosphere, to observe the Sun in the extreme ultraviolet, X-ray, and radio wavelengths, to image the corona and the heliosphere up to 45 <italic>R</italic><sub>s</sub>, and to perform <italic>in-situ</italic> detection of magnetic fields, and low- and high-energy particles in the solar wind. The SPO mission is capable of providing critical vector magnetic fields and Doppler velocities of the polar regions to advance our understanding of the origin of the solar magnetic cycle, providing unprecedented imaging observations of the solar poles alongside <italic>in-situ</italic> measurements of charged particles and magnetic fields from high heliolatitudes to unveil the mass and energy supply that drive the fast solar wind, and providing observational constraints for improving our ability to model and predict the three-dimensional (3D) structures and propagation of space weather events.

Authors

Publication Details

Journal
Chinese Journal of Space Science
Published
2025-01-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.11728/cjss2025.04.2025-0054
Citations
5
Primary Topic
Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
5.77

Funders

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article

Probing Solar Polar Regions

Fang Shen, L. K. Harra, Hui Tian, M. Romoli et al.
5 citations
Chinese Journal of Space Science
Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics
5.77
article

Probing Solar Polar Regions

Fang Shen, L. K. Harra, Hui Tian, M. Romoli, Robert P. Cameron, Chunlan Jin, Durgesh Kumar Tripathi, Xiaoshuai Zhu, L. P. Chitta, Pengfei Chen, Xueshang Feng, Zhenyong Hou, F. Auchere, Taro Sakao, Shin Toriumi, Shangbin Yang, Vaibhav Pant, R. Bellot, Xianyong Bai, Donald M. Hassler, Jie Jiang, Mei Zhang, R. F. Wimmer‐Schweingruber, Lidong Xia, Yihua Yan, Yang Su, J. A. Davies, Li‐Ping Yang, L. Gizon, Yuanyong Deng, Dibyendu Nandy, F. Favata, Jiansen He, Chi Wang, Hao Li, Wenya Li, Li Feng, Jiasheng Wang, Shuhong Yang, Linghua Wang, Linjie Chen, Junfeng Hou, Guiping Zhou, Ming Xiong, Jiaben Lin, Weiqun Gan, Krishna Prasad SAYAMANTHULA
article en
5 citations

Abstract

The magnetic fields and dynamical processes in the solar polar regions play a crucial role in the solar magnetic cycle and in supplying mass and energy to the fast solar wind, ultimately being vital in controlling solar activities and driving space weather. Despite numerous efforts to explore these regions, to date no imaging observations of the Sun’s poles have been achieved from vantage points out of the ecliptic plane, leaving their behavior and evolution poorly understood. This observation gap has left three top-level scientific questions unanswered: How does the solar dynamo work and drive the solar magnetic cycle? What drives the fast solar wind? How do space weather processes globally originate from the Sun and propagate throughout the solar system? The Solar Polar-orbit Observatory (SPO) mission, a solar polar exploration spacecraft, is proposed to address these three unanswered scientific questions by imaging the Sun’s poles from high heliolatitudes. In order to achieve its scientific goals, SPO will carry six remote-sensing and four <italic>in-situ</italic> instruments to measure the vector magnetic fields and Doppler velocity fields in the photosphere, to observe the Sun in the extreme ultraviolet, X-ray, and radio wavelengths, to image the corona and the heliosphere up to 45 <italic>R</italic><sub>s</sub>, and to perform <italic>in-situ</italic> detection of magnetic fields, and low- and high-energy particles in the solar wind. The SPO mission is capable of providing critical vector magnetic fields and Doppler velocities of the polar regions to advance our understanding of the origin of the solar magnetic cycle, providing unprecedented imaging observations of the solar poles alongside <italic>in-situ</italic> measurements of charged particles and magnetic fields from high heliolatitudes to unveil the mass and energy supply that drive the fast solar wind, and providing observational constraints for improving our ability to model and predict the three-dimensional (3D) structures and propagation of space weather events.

Chinese Journal of Space ScienceVol. 45(4)
European Commission, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Openalex Percentile: Top 4%
Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics
5.77
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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