Inner heliosphere studies of the solar wind

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The Space & Atmospheric Physics group are leading the development of a magnetometer for the Solar Orbiter mission, due for launch in 2019. Solar Orbiter will carry a suite of remote sensing and in-situ instrumentation to distances as close as 0.28 AU from the Sun. The mission aims to combine these complementary observational techniques to answer questions such as how and where solar wind plasma and magnetic fields originate in the corona; and how solar transients drive heliospheric variability? This PhD project will exploit existing remote sensing and in-situ data sets to address questions relevant to Solar Orbiter science. A possible initial project could study the relationship between the in-situ observed properties of coronal mass ejections with their region of origin in the corona and how these subsequently evolve with distance from the Sun, taking advantages of previously identified examples of CMEs observed by radially aligned spacecraft. A particular question of interest is whether evidence can be found of erosion of the CME magnetic structure taking place through reconnection.