Heliospheric and Planetary Research 2023-2026

我们将开展一项研究方案，研究日光层基本等离子体过程的行为及其在塑造空间环境方面的作用。日光层是由太阳和太阳风控制的空间区域。我们将使用最先进的等离子体模拟，沿着支持航天器数据，揭示湍流在整个太阳系中各种等离子体过程中的作用，例如粒子碰撞，冲击动力学和磁重联。这一综合研究计划将有助于回答当今空间物理学中一些最重要的问题，例如：能量如何通过空间流动以使粒子加速，磁重联如何释放能量并在等离子体中产生最小尺度的结构，以及湍流等离子体中的冲击波如何被修改并加速粒子。一个关键的方面是了解从耀斑到行星际激波和行星弓形激波在日光层中产生高能粒子的过程。这项研究将使我们能够将我们所看到的各种复杂的等离子体结构与它们在塑造整个日光层的等离子体环境中所扮演的角色联系起来。我们的研究将利用2015年发射的磁层多尺度航天器的数据，该航天器正在对近地空间进行一些最高分辨率的等离子体测量，2018年发射的帕克太阳探测器，它花了7年时间对太阳的等离子体，太阳风进行采样，从比以往任何时候都更近的距离-到距离太阳10个太阳半径，以及太阳轨道器，于2020年发射，它具有将太阳与日光层连接起来的综合原位和成像仪器，并允许太阳风演变研究。除了具有根本意义之外，太阳风也是太阳和地球之间的联系，驱动控制地球磁层的空间天气，并对卫星和通信网络等技术系统产生深远影响。我们将使用来自磁层多尺度的数据来表征地球磁鞘中运行的各种动力学等离子体过程，例如波，重连和不稳定性，以及这些过程如何相互作用以产生我们所看到的近地空间环境。此外，我们将进行研究，这将有助于我们了解巨大的影响在行星形成中发挥的基本作用。这项工作将使用显式模拟在大质量主潮汐环境中的物体之间的巨大碰撞，以了解行星卫星的形成和碰撞演化。这些结果将用于检验天王星卫星Cressida和Desdemona以及土星卫星Iapetus的碰撞起源理论。此外，这些结果将被用来开发适用于许多情况下（例如，卫星系统、短周期系外行星和白色矮星附近的吸积环境）。

We will conduct a programme of research concerning the behaviour of fundamental plasma processes in the heliosphere and the role they play in shaping the space environment. The heliosphere is the region of space dominated by the Sun and the solar wind which flows out from it. We will use state-of-the-art plasma simulations, along with supporting spacecraft data, to reveal the role that turbulence plays in a variety of plasma processes throughout the solar system, such as particle energization, shock dynamics, and turbulence-driven magnetic reconnection. This combined programme of research will help answer some of the most important questions in space physics today such as: how energy flows through space to enable particle acceleration, how magnetic reconnection releases energy and generates structures at the smallest scales in the plasma, and how shock waves in a turbulent plasma are modified and accelerate particles. A key aspect is understanding the processes producing energetic particles in the heliosphere from flares to interplanetary shocks and planetary bow shocks. The research will enable us to link the variety of complex plasma structures we see to the roles they play in shaping the plasma environment throughout the heliosphere.Our research will make use of data from the Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft, launched in 2015, which are making some of the highest resolution plasma measurements of near-Earth space, the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft, launched in 2018, which is spending 7 years sampling the Sun's plasma, the solar wind, from closer then ever before - down to 10 solar radii from the Sun, and Solar Orbiter, launched in 2020, which has comprehensive in situ and imaging instruments linking the Sun to the heliosphere and allowing solar wind evolution studies. As well as being of fundamental interest, the solar wind is also the link between the Sun and the Earth, driving the Space Weather that controls the Earth's magnetosphere, and which can have profound effects on technological systems such as satellites and communication networks. We will use data from Magnetospheric Multiscale to characterize the variety of kinetic plasma processes operating in the Earth's magnetosheath, such as waves, reconnection, and instabilities, and how these processes interact to generate the near-Earth space environment that we see. Furthermore we will perform research which will help us understand the fundamental role that giant impacts play in planet formation. This work will use explicit simulations of giant impacts between bodies in the tidal environment of a massive primary to understand the formation and collisional evolution of planetary satellites. The results will be used to test collisional origin theories for the Uranian satellites, Cressida and Desdemona, and the Saturnian satellite Iapetus. Further, these results will be used to develop collision scaling relations in the tidal regime that are applicable in many contexts (e.g., satellite systems, short-period exoplanets and the accretion environment near white dwarfs).