Scientists have just released a 10-year plan to study the Sun, currently at its solar maximum. Credit: NASA
At its current solar maximum, our Sun has been quite busy of late, hurling parts of itself towards Earth and raising concerns about the effects on satellites and power grids, while also delighting us with incredible auroras.
Solar and space weather scientists have also been busy. They just released a giant, nearly 800-page report to set priorities for their fields over the next decade.
And no such relationship would be complete without a couple of exciting space missions.
Sponsored by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, “The Next Decade of Discovery in Solar and Space Physics: Exploring and Safeguarding Humanity’s Home in Space” lays out visions and plans to improve our knowledge of the “local cosmos “, from the Sun’s polar secrets and its sometimes dangerous effects on our technology when, for example, space weather disrupts cell service and the Internet.
The decade-long investigation outlines a series of recommendations distilled from the input of hundreds of scientists, including:
* The creation of the HelioSystems Laboratory which will coordinate research and projects between government agencies and other institutions.
* Two new space missions. One would be a constellation of satellites with two additional imaging vehicles that would further study how solar physics plays out in the near-Earth environment. Another would send a probe to photograph and measure the Sun’s poles to investigate how the solar magnetic field is created and how it affects the Sun’s igneous activity.
* Construction of the National Science Foundation’s Next Generation Global Oscillations Network Group, a series of ground-based solar observatories that would study the vibrating layers of our star, allowing scientists to use helioseismology to resolve the structure and internal processes of the Sun.
* Development of the Frequency Agile solar radio telescope, which would track the Sun’s highly variable emissions in both microwave and radio wavelengths.
* Build a proof of concept for the Distributed Arrays of Small Heterogeneous Instruments project, which, according to the NSF solicitation, would require “high spatial and temporal resolution measurements to determine the local, regional, and global scale processes that are essential to addressing the fundamental questions of solar and space physics”.
* Have the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration establish a space weather research program by working with the Department of Defense to create better models for space weather predictions.
* Increase the number of NASA missions under the Heliophysical Space Weather program, while seeking cooperation with other agencies on the topic of space weather.
According to the National Academies, “focused research over the next decade would result in an increased ability to predict coronal mass ejections, solar flares, and geomagnetic storms; monitor radiation-rich environments for manned and robotic missions; and model the trajectories of satellites and debris in low Earth orbit.
Ultimately, the report outlines a vision of a field with a more unified approach to space and solar physics across the many disciplines that span it, thus aiding student education, researcher recruitment and retention, and public outreach.
Investments in these missions and projects will face some hurdles in the current budget climate, with the incoming administration pledging budget cuts and a space agency facing austerity due to an inability to keep pace with inflation. Congress, by continuing to set the budget using rolling resolutions instead of the normal hearing process, has stymied the agency’s growth. That said, private entrepreneur and astronaut Jared Isaacman, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to run NASA, has said he supports space science missions while being critical of the cost of the expensive Space Launch System for human spaceflight.
Time will tell.
“The field of solar and space physics is at a crucial point right now,” report co-author and Dartmouth astronomer Robyn Millan said in a statement. “And over the next few years we will have the opportunity to pursue some really exciting science, both for the sake of science and to make major improvements in our understanding of things like space weather. Research along these lines… is increasingly important for society, for our infrastructure and for health, and will have a real impact here on Earth and on our efforts to explore the solar system.”
