Reading Solar System Science

我们在这个提案中结合了七个研究项目，它们将分别和共同推进我们对太阳、行星际空间和整个太阳系行星的认识和理解。我们有两个主要的主题——了解“太空天气”背后的科学，以及研究太阳系中的行星，以更好地了解它们维持生命的潜力。空间天气描述了我们的空间环境的变化，它可以影响我们所依赖的技术基础设施。例如，人造卫星、航空系统、配电网络和通信都可能受到近地空间等离子体和磁场变化的影响。这种变化是由太阳的磁循环控制的，并由太阳风携带着穿越太阳系。我们的研究将帮助我们了解太阳磁场如何从一个太阳周期变化到下一个太阳周期，并将使我们能够预测未来几十年的未来磁场活动。我们将确定行星际或日球层磁场是如何在靠近太阳的地方产生和破坏的。这两个项目的结果将由即将于2018年发射的欧空局太阳轨道器任务进行验证，并提供对太阳磁周期性质的新的深入了解。我们将研究大型太阳风结构，即日冕物质抛射，在穿越日球层的过程中是如何变化的。我们将使用世界范围内用于数值天气预报和气候模拟的相同数据同化技术来研究速度为300-500km/s的慢太阳风的来源。这些研究项目将进一步加深我们对太阳如何影响近地空间和我们的空间天气的理解。在地球上，我们将研究太阳风是如何控制地球磁泡（即磁层）内部的条件的。在这个区域，物质非常脆弱，粒子之间的碰撞非常罕见。相反，近地空间中的电子和离子与电磁波相互作用，改变它们的能量和方向，并可能导致电子显著加速到相对论速度。我们将具体研究电磁波是如何被磁层内的可变性所激发的，由太阳风的可变条件所驱动。木星周围冰冷的卫星支持生命的能力将使用最先进的海洋学模型进行调查。寻找生命的关键因素之一是营养物质的可用性，但我们目前没有办法准确地确定木卫二和木卫三的冰下有什么。我们将使用模型来预测冰下海洋中不同的盐度水平将如何影响欧空局的木星冰卫星探测器JUICE进行的太空观测，该探测器将于2022年发射，并将于2030年访问木星系统。这个项目的新认识将使科学家们能够利用JUICE的观测结果探测冰下深处，寻找卫星可能支持生命的迹象。我们将研究金星上云的带电现象。金星没有像地球或水星那样的保护磁场，而且它靠近太阳，这意味着对金星大气层的空间天气影响可能与其他行星上的空间天气相互作用非常不同。我们将建立一个新的模拟金星大气的实验室，以确定金星独特大气中云中的液滴是如何带电的。这项工作对于了解金星上的全球电路以及它如何受到太阳活动的影响非常重要。

We combine seven research projects in this proposal that will separately and collectively advance our knowledge and understanding of the Sun, interplanetary space, and planets throughout our solar system. We have two main themes - to understand the science behind "Space Weather" and to investigate planets in our solar system to better understand their potential for sustaining life. Space Weather describes the variability of our space environment that can affect technological infrastructure upon which we rely. For example, artificial satellites, aviation systems, power distribution networks and communications can all be affected by the variability of plasma and magnetic fields in near-Earth space. This variability is controlled by the Sun's magnetic cycle and carried by the solar wind through the solar system. Our research will help us understand how the Sun's magnetic field varies from one solar cycle to the next, and will allow us to predict future magnetic activity over the next few decades. We will determine how the interplanetary, or heliospheric, magnetic field is created and destroyed close to the Sun. Results from these two projects will be validated by the upcoming ESA mission Solar Orbiter, due to launch in 2018 and provide new and deep understanding of the nature of the magnetic solar cycle.We will investigate how large solar wind structures, known as Coronal Mass Ejections, change as they are transported throughout the heliosphere. We will use the same data assimilation techniques used worldwide in numerical weather prediction and climate modelling to study the source of the slow solar wind, with velocities of 300-500km/s. These research projects will further our understanding of how the Sun influences near-Earth space and our Space Weather. At Earth, we will investigate how the solar wind controls conditions inside Earth's magnetic bubble, known as the magnetosphere. In this region, the material is so tenuous that collisions between particles are very rare. Instead, the electrons and ions in near-Earth space undergo interactions with electromagnetic waves that change their energy and direction and can lead to significant electron acceleration to relativistic speeds. We will specifically investigate how the electromagnetic waves are energised by variability within the magnetosphere, driven by the variable conditions of the solar wind.The ability of the icy moons around Jupiter to support life will be investigated using state-of-the-art oceanographic models. One of the key factors in the search for life is the availability of nutrients, but we currently have no way of accurately determining what lies under the ice on Europa and Ganymede. We will use modelling to predict how different salinity levels in the sub-ice ocean will influence the space-based observations made by ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer JUICE, which will launch in 2022 and is due to visit the Jovian system in 2030. The new understanding from this project will allow scientists to use observations from JUICE to probe deep underneath the ice for signs that the moons have the potential to support life.We will investigate the electrification of clouds at Venus. Venus has no protective magnetic field like the Earth or Mercury, and it's proximity to the sun means that space weather effects on Venus' atmosphere may be very different to space weather interactions at other planets. We will build a new laboratory analogue of Venus' atmosphere to determine how droplets within clouds in Venus unique atmosphere become charged. This work is very important to understand the global electrical circuit on Venus and how it is effected by solar activity.