Heliospheric and Planetary Research 2023-2026

我们将开展一项关于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发挥的作用的研究方案。日光层是由太阳和从太阳流出的太阳风主导的空间区域。我们将使用最先进的等离子体模拟，以及支持航天器的数据，来揭示湍流在整个太阳系的各种等离子体过程中所起的作用，例如粒子能量、激波动力学和湍流驱动的磁重联。这一联合研究计划将有助于回答当今空间物理学中的一些最重要的问题，例如：能量如何在空间中流动以实现粒子加速、磁重联如何释放能量并在等离子体中以最小的尺度产生结构，以及湍流等离子体中的冲击波如何被修改并加速粒子。一个关键方面是了解日光层从耀斑到行星际冲击和行星弓激波产生高能粒子的过程。这项研究将使我们能够将我们看到的各种复杂的等离子体结构与它们在塑造整个日球层等离子体环境中所起的作用联系起来。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航天器花了7年时间对太阳等离子体、太阳风进行采样，从更近的距离到太阳半径10个太阳半径，以及2020年发射的太阳轨道器，它拥有全面的现场和成像仪器，将太阳与日光层联系起来，并允许进行太阳风演化研究。除了基本利益，太阳风也是太阳和地球之间的纽带，推动控制地球磁层的空间天气，并可能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描述在地球磁鞘中运行的各种动力学等离子体过程，例如波、重联和不稳定性，以及这些过程如何相互作用来产生我们所看到的近地空间环境。此外，我们将进行研究，帮助我们了解巨大撞击在行星形成中所起的基本作用。这项工作将使用对大质量初级天体潮汐环境中天体之间巨大碰撞的显式模拟，以了解行星卫星的形成和碰撞演化。这些结果将被用来检验天王星卫星克雷西达和德斯德蒙娜以及土星卫星土卫八的碰撞起源理论。此外，这些结果将用于建立适用于许多情况(例如，卫星系统、短周期系外行星和白矮星附近的吸积环境)的潮汐制度中的碰撞比例关系。

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).