A Place in the Sun: Taking Solar System Science to the Public

在了解行星系统方面，地球的后院是一个巨大的科学实验室。更重要的是，这是我们唯一的实验室！太阳系科学包括太阳物理学、太阳地球物理学和太阳行星物理学、行星科学和日球层物理学。在这个奖学金期间，我将与公众接触，以展示太阳系科学研究活动与英国社会的相关性。我特别感兴趣的是向公众和决策者传达空间环境研究的直接相关性。例如，社会在公用事业、通信、商业、娱乐和安全方面越来越依赖现代技术，但其中许多技术容易受到空间环境（通常称为“空间天气”）的快速变化和干扰的影响。太阳活动，如太阳耀斑和日冕物质抛射，可导致近地空间环境的空间天气受到干扰，并可能对地面和空间技术造成破坏性后果。与1859年英国天文学家理查德·卡灵顿观测到的巨大太阳耀斑规模相当的大扰动，可能对通信卫星和配电网络等空间和地面技术产生巨大影响，并带来明显的经济后果。太阳系研究也与全球气候变化、在太阳系中寻找生命和寻找可能维持生命的系外行星有关——显然，这些问题具有巨大的社会和文化重要性。这项奖学金将使我有时间在我以前的外展活动的基础上，通过创新渠道与公众接触。除了为成人观众和学校团体开发在线和面对面的活动外，我对利用移动电话技术通过智能手机应用程序提供增值数据产品和太阳系科学内容特别感兴趣。这项技术提供的即时性和互动性为公众参与开辟了新的和令人兴奋的可能性，并有明显的潜力在STFC的职权范围内进一步开发。

In terms of understanding planetary systems, the Earth's backyard is an enormous scientific laboratory. What's more, it's the only laboratory we have! Solar system science incorporates solar physics, solar-terrestrial and solar-planetary physics, planetary science and heliospheric physics. During this fellowship I will engage with the general public in order to demonstrate the relevance of research activities in solar system science to UK society. I am particularly interested in communicating the direct relevance of research into the space environment to the public and policy-makers. For example, society is becoming increasingly reliant upon modern technologies for utilities, communication, commerce, entertainment and security, but many of these technologies are susceptible to the rapid changes and disturbances in the space environment often referred to as 'space weather'. Events at the Sun, such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections, can result in disturbed space weather in the near-Earth space environment and potentially disruptive consequences for technologies on the ground and in space. Large disturbances, on the same scale as the enormous solar flare observed by English astronomer Richard Carrington in 1859, could have a massive impact on space- and ground-based technologies such as communications satellites and electricity distribution networks, with obvious economic consequences. Solar system research is also relevant to global climate change, the search for life in our solar system and the hunt for potentially life-sustaining exoplanets - clearly issues of huge societal and cultural importance. This fellowship will give me the time to build upon my previous outreach activities and engage with public audiences via innovative channels. As well as developing online and face-to-face activities for adult audience and schools groups, I am especially interested in exploiting mobile phone technology to deliver value-added data products and solar system science content via smartphone applications. The immediacy and interactivity offered by this technology is opening up new and exciting possibilities for public engagement and has clear potential for further exploitation across the STFC remit.