SHINE: Origin and Evolution of Structure in the Solar Wind

首席研究员（PI）将调查太阳风在太阳附近和地球上的不连续性，并利用这些结构研究太阳的磁重联事件。他的团队将对非连续性类型进行分类，计算非连续性发生的频率作为太阳风特征和太阳源区域的函数，并开发预测到达地球的等离子体结构类型的能力。PI的团队将统计分析来自Wind、ACE、helios 1和helios 2航天器的高分辨率等离子体和磁场数据，以制定标准来识别太阳风中存在的各种类型的不连续性。然后，该团队将使用wang - sheey - arge （WSA）模型将L1处的太阳风映射回太阳表面，从而确定其目录中的每个不连续区起源于哪种类型的太阳表面区域（例如，日冕洞中心，日冕洞边缘，小日冕洞或活动区域）。利用他们的不连续目录，PI的团队将确定等离子体边界和超热电子边界，然后使用在1天文单位收集的磁场和等离子体数据计算每个边界对之间的磁通量量。根据这个通量量和计算出的太阳风过境时间，他们将估算出太阳表面的重联率。这个项目所需的数据可以在网上获得。PI希望这一努力能够更好地理解日球层等离子体结构的起源以及太阳风中的物理过程。该项目将培养一名博士后科学家，研究成果将纳入教育推广计划。

The Principal Investigator (PI) will investigate discontinuities in the solar wind near the Sun and at the Earth, and use these structures to study magnetic reconnection events at the Sun. His team will catalog discontinuity types, calculate discontinuity occurrence frequency as a function of solar wind characteristics and solar source region, and develop a capability to predict the types of plasma structures that arrive at Earth. The PI's team will statistically analyze high-resolution plasma and magnetic field data from the Wind, ACE, Helios-1, and Helios-2 spacecraft to develop criteria to identify the various types of discontinuities existing in the solar wind. The team will then use the Wang-Sheeley-Arge (WSA) model to map the solar wind at L1 back to the solar surface, and thus determine from which type of solar-surface region (for example, center of coronal hole, coronal-hole edge, small coronal hole, or active region) each discontinuity in their catalog originated. Using their discontinuity catalog, the PI's team will identify plasma boundaries and suprathermal-electron boundaries, and then calculate the amount of magnetic flux between each boundary pair using magnetic field and plasma data collected at 1 AU. From this amount of flux and the calculated transit time of the solar wind, the will estimate the reconnection rate at the solar surface.The data needed for this project are accessible online. The PI expects this effort to lead to a better understanding of the origin of plasma structure in the heliosphere and the physical processes acting in the solar wind. This project will train a postdoctoral scientist and the research results will be incorporated into an educational outreach program.