| Session Details | |
| Section | ST - Solar & Terrestrial Sciences |
| Session Title | Fundamental Physics of the Solar Corona and Inner Heliosphere |
| Main Convener | Dr. Chadi Salem (University of California, Berkeley, United States) |
| Co-convener(s) | Dr. Jiansen He (Peking University, Beijing, China) Prof. Marco Velli (University of California, Los Angeles, United States) Prof. Leon Ofman (Catholic University of America, United States) |
| Session Description | The solar corona and solar wind provide a complex laboratory where magnetic fields guide and energize the plasma. Structured over an incredibly wide range of time and spatial scales, the coronal plasma is heated and accelerated to give the supersonic, super-Alfvénic, and turbulent wind observed in the heliosphere. In-situ solar wind turbulence observations show a dissipation range, which is direct evidence of ongoing turbulent heating believed to operate throughout the heliosphere, from the low corona out to the heliosheath. Subsurface solar convection powers all its mass loss, generates magnetic fields, excites solar flares through magnetic reconnection, and drives coronal mass ejections, plasma electrostatic/electromagnetic waves, and the various turbulent processes that evolve throughout the heliosphere. The session is open to exploring the array of physical processes involved in the Heliosphere’s origin and evolution: the sources of different solar wind types and their connection to different coronal structures; the micro-physics of particle velocity distribution functions, their anisotropies and various nonthermal characteristics; the role of turbulence and wave-particle interactions in heating and acceleration; and the energization driven by MHD waves and structures, such as shocks, current sheets and/or magnetic reconnection. What specific observables can be derived from models, what fundamental observations should drive theoretical developments, in preparation for the decade of inner heliospheric and coronal exploration with Solar Orbiter and Parker Solar Probe? Solicited contributions include theoretical, numerical simulation, and observational papers. |