CAREER: Integrated Research and Education in Solar Physics, Space Weather, and Energetic Charged Particles

太阳偶尔会变得非常活跃，并产生太阳系中最大的高能带电粒子流。这些太阳高能粒子（SEP）的物理特性差异很大。太阳物理学界目前有一个有用的范例来帮助对这些事件进行分类;然而，我们缺乏对它们加速和传播到地球所涉及的重要物理过程的详细了解。现在很清楚，为了获得一个基于基本物理学的图像，我们需要采取跨学科的方法，结合太阳物理学，粒子传输理论（加速和传播），空间等离子体物理学和空间天气。对太阳高能粒子物理学的更深入了解将使我们能够更好地预测空间天气及其所需的一切。PI建议将基础研究和教育结合起来，以帮助理解整个太阳-地球系统的各个方面。PI打算在亚利桑那大学行星科学系开设一门研究生水平的太阳物理学课程。该课程将介绍太阳物理学，包括详细描述太阳磁场和极端太阳活动，其中一些是造成高能粒子加速的原因，以及太阳活动与地球气候之间的关系。其次，PI将与国家太阳观测站合作，为研究生和研究人员开发一系列暑期学校，教授跨学科的方法来研究太阳-地球的联系。第三，该项目的公共宣传部分旨在激发公众对太阳物理学和空间气象的兴趣，并为公立学校的科学教师和学生提供新的学科材料。LPL的公众推广计划和亚利桑那大学的SAMEC（科学数学教育中心）计划将指导公众推广活动。研究计划的重点是研究地球附近和更远的高能带电粒子（高达几十GeV）的起源，使用分析理论和数值模拟（包括必要时的数据分析）。长期目标是确定SEP加速的机制，确定可能的来源，了解它们如何在地球（和火星）附近空间的波动电场和磁场中传播，确定观测到的粒子通量，能谱和成分变化的原因，并确定太阳，日冕和日光层磁场的结构。

The Sun occasionally becomes extremely active and produces the largest flux of high-energy charged particles in our solar system. The physical characteristics of these solar-energetic particles (SEP) vary considerably. The solar physics community currently has a useful paradigm to help categorize these events; however, we lack a detailed understanding of the important physical processes involved in their acceleration and propagation to Earth. It is now clear that, in order to arrive at a fundamental physics-based picture, we need to take a cross-disciplinary approach that combines solar physics, particle transport theory (acceleration and propagation), space-plasma physics, and space weather. A deeper understanding of the physics of solar-energetic particles will enable a better predictive capability for space weather and all that that entails. The PI proposes to integrate basic research and education to help understand various aspects of the connected Sun-Earth system as a whole. The PI intends to develop a graduate-level solar physics course in the Department of Planetary Sciences at the University of Arizona. The course will present an introduction to the physics of the Sun, including a detailed description of solar magnetic fields and extreme solar activity, some of which is responsible for the acceleration of high-energy particles, and the relation between solar activity and Earth's climate. Second, the PI will partner with the National Solar Observatory to develop a series of summer schools for graduate students and researchers that teach a cross-disciplinary approach to studying the Sun-Earth connection. Third, a public outreach component to the project is targeted to spark public interest in solar physics and space weather, and to provide new subject material for science teachers and students at public schools. LPL's Public Outreach Program and the University of Arizona's SAMEC (Science & Math Education Center) program will direct public outreach activities.The research plan focuses on studying the origin of energetic charged particles (up to a few tens of GeV) near Earth and beyond, using analytic theory and numerical modeling (including data analysis when needed). The long-term goals are to determine the mechanism(s) responsible for SEP acceleration, to identify probable sources, understand how they propagate in the fluctuating electric and magnetic fields of the space near Earth (and Mars), to determine the causes of the observed variability in particle fluxes, energy spectra, and composition, and to determine the structure of solar, coronal, and heliospheric magnetic fields.