[Shine-participants] Polar Perspectives 2018 (Boulder, CO, September 25 – 27, 2018) – A Workshop to Discuss Solar Polar Mission Readiness

[Scott Mcintosh]

Dear All,
Please find the following announcement about the solar polar science
workshop that Don and Angelos mentioned at this mornings town hall.

For your reading pleasure many people have contributed to this recent
paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1805.09452

If you have questions or concerns please don't hesitate to ask. Final
agenda is being set this week.

Sincerely,
Scott

--
*Polar Perspectives 2018 (Boulder, CO, September 25 – 27, 2018) – A
Workshop to Discuss Solar Polar Mission Readiness*

*When:*
September 25 - 27, 2018
*Where:*
NCAR/HAO: Boulder CO.
*Website:* www2.hao.ucar.edu/PolarPerspectives2018

*Workshop Charge: *To explore the scientific breakthroughs made possible by
repeated or sustained observations of the Sun’s polar regions, and to
consider the technologies and orbital dynamics required to achieve
measurements at the desired vantages.

*Workshop Objective: *Develop a science portfolio for a solar polar
mission, present and discuss options on a baseline, and extended, suite of
instrumentation, and develop a number of conceptual orbits available with
existing launch capacity.

*Workshop Motivation:* For the first time in human history, our technology
allows us to observe all longitudes of the solar atmosphere. The combined
imaging data from SOHO, STEREO, and SDO have demonstrated some of the
rotationally driven processes on our Star. They present a tantalizing
glimpse of the Sun’s polar evolution when the data are pieced together,
despite limitations arising the fact that all of these spacecraft are
observing the poles from vantages close to the ecliptic plane. For decades,
observations of high solar latitudes have been used as critical precursor
input for predictions of decadal-scale solar activity. Many solar
high-latitude phenomena—including polar coronal holes, polar crown
filaments, and the Sun’s torsional oscillations—indicate a limiting
latitude around 55 degrees (in each hemisphere) that apparently divides
high- vs. low-latitude dynamical evolution. A polar view would directly
reveal the Sun’s global-scale dynamics, investigate the sources of the fast
solar wind, and witness the full lifetime of structures in the solar
atmosphere from birth to death, including a Sun-to-Earth view of coronal
mass ejections.

In this workshop we will take inventory of the science that might be
accomplished by a solar polar mission. We will discuss mission
architecture, maturity of required compact instrumentation, and
technological limitations placed on any concept mission by currently
available launch capacity and/or spacecraft propulsion systems.

An important precedent was set by the Ulysses mission, which obtained
groundbreaking polar in-situ observations. Beyond this, numerous
feasibility investigations of solar polar missions have already been
undertaken. A key element of the workshop will be to capture the “lessons
learned” from these past activities and to use them to effectively move
forward in designing future solar polar missions.--
*Scott W. McIntosh*
*High Altitude Observatory*
Director
Email:  *mscott at ucar.edu <mscott at ucar.edu>*
*Web:  **https://staff.ucar.edu/users/mscott
<https://staff.ucar.edu/users/mscott>*
*Office:  (303) 497-1544*
*Mobile: (720) 215-9675*
*Mobile (UK): 0785 433-7629*
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