Solar Orbiter, the first mission of ESA's Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 programme and a mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA, will explore the Sun and heliosphere from close up and out of the ecliptic plane. It was launched on 10 February 2020 04:03 UTC from Cape Canaveral and aims to address key questions of solar and heliospheric physics pertaining to how the Sun creates and controls the Heliosphere, and why solar activity changes with time. To answer these, the mission carries six remote-sensing instruments to observe the Sun and the solar corona, and four in-situ instruments to measure the solar wind, energetic particles, and electromagnetic fields. In this paper, we describe the science objectives of the mission, and how these will be addressed by the joint observations of the instruments onboard. The paper first summarises the mission-level science objectives, followed by an overview of the spacecraft and payload. We report the observables and performance figures of each instrument, as well as the trajectory design. This is followed by a summary of the science operations concept. The paper concludes with a more detailed description of the science objectives. Solar Orbiter will combine in-situ measurements in the heliosphere with high-resolution remote-sensing observations of the Sun to address fundamental questions of solar and heliospheric physics. The performance of the Solar Orbiter payload meets the requirements derived from the mission's science objectives. Its science return will be augmented further by coordinated observations with other space missions and ground-based observatories.

/pdf/the-solar-orbiter-mission-science-overview-27zlqx0qyv.pdf

The Solar Orbiter mission -- Science overview

Aims. Solar Orbiter, the first mission of ESA’s Cosmic Vision 2015–2025 programme and a mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA, will explore the Sun and heliosphere from close up and out of the ecliptic plane. It was launched on 10 February 2020 04:03 UTC from Cape Canaveral and aims to address key questions of solar and heliospheric physics pertaining to how the Sun creates and controls the Heliosphere, and why solar activity changes with time. To answer these, the mission carries six remote-sensing instruments to observe the Sun and the solar corona, and four in-situ instruments to measure the solar wind, energetic particles, and electromagnetic fields. In this paper, we describe the science objectives of the mission, and how these will be addressed by the joint observations of the instruments onboard.Methods. The paper first summarises the mission-level science objectives, followed by an overview of the spacecraft and payload. We report the observables and performance figures of each instrument, as well as the trajectory design. This is followed by a summary of the science operations concept. The paper concludes with a more detailed description of the science objectives.Results. Solar Orbiter will combine in-situ measurements in the heliosphere with high-resolution remote-sensing observations of the Sun to address fundamental questions of solar and heliospheric physics. The performance of the Solar Orbiter payload meets the requirements derived from the mission’s science objectives. Its science return will be augmented further by coordinated observations with other space missions and ground-based observatories.

/pdf/the-solar-orbiter-mission-science-overview-1edys0hbk4.pdf

The Solar Orbiter mission. Science overview

The Sun, as an active star, is the driver of energetic phenomena that structure interplanetary space and affect planetary atmospheres. The effects of Space Weather on Earth and the solar system is of increasing importance as human spaceflight is preparing for lunar and Mars missions. This review is focusing on the solar perspective of the Space Weather relevant phenomena, coronal mass ejections (CMEs), flares, solar energetic particles (SEPs), and solar wind stream interaction regions (SIR). With the advent of the STEREO mission (launched in 2006), literally, new perspectives were provided that enabled for the first time to study coronal structures and the evolution of activity phenomena in three dimensions. New imaging capabilities, covering the entire Sun-Earth distance range, allowed to seamlessly connect CMEs and their interplanetary counterparts measured in-situ (so called ICMEs). This vastly increased our knowledge and understanding of the dynamics of interplanetary space due to solar activity and fostered the development of Space Weather forecasting models. Moreover, we are facing challenging times gathering new data from two extraordinary missions, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe (launched in 2018) and ESA’s Solar Orbiter (launched in 2020), that will in the near future provide more detailed insight into the solar wind evolution and image CMEs from view points never approached before. The current review builds upon the Living Reviews article by Schwenn from 2006, updating on the Space Weather relevant CME-flare-SEP phenomena from the solar perspective, as observed from multiple viewpoints and their concomitant solar surface signatures.

/pdf/space-weather-the-solar-perspective-1sl58bhneh.pdf

Space weather: the solar perspective

Aims. This paper describes the Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager on the Solar Orbiter mission (SO/PHI), the first magnetograph and helioseismology instrument to observe the Sun from outside the Sun-Earth line. It is the key instrument meant to address the top-level science question: How does the solar dynamo work and drive connections between the Sun and the heliosphere? SO/PHI will also play an important role in answering the other top-level science questions of Solar Orbiter, while hosting the potential of a rich return in further science.Methods. SO/PHI measures the Zeeman effect and the Doppler shift in the Fe I 617.3 nm spectral line. To this end, the instrument carries out narrow-band imaging spectro-polarimetry using a tunable LiNbO3 Fabry-Perot etalon, while the polarisation modulation is done with liquid crystal variable retarders. The line and the nearby continuum are sampled at six wavelength points and the data are recorded by a 2k × 2k CMOS detector. To save valuable telemetry, the raw data are reduced on board, including being inverted under the assumption of a Milne-Eddington atmosphere, although simpler reduction methods are also available on board. SO/PHI is composed of two telescopes; one, the Full Disc Telescope, covers the full solar disc at all phases of the orbit, while the other, the High Resolution Telescope, can resolve structures as small as 200 km on the Sun at closest perihelion. The high heat load generated through proximity to the Sun is greatly reduced by the multilayer-coated entrance windows to the two telescopes that allow less than 4% of the total sunlight to enter the instrument, most of it in a narrow wavelength band around the chosen spectral line.Results. SO/PHI was designed and built by a consortium having partners in Germany, Spain, and France. The flight model was delivered to Airbus Defence and Space, Stevenage, and successfully integrated into the Solar Orbiter spacecraft. A number of innovations were introduced compared with earlier space-based spectropolarimeters, thus allowing SO/PHI to fit into the tight mass, volume, power and telemetry budgets provided by the Solar Orbiter spacecraft and to meet the (e.g. thermal) challenges posed by the mission’s highly elliptical orbit.

/pdf/the-polarimetric-and-helioseismic-imager-on-solar-orbiter-2hewp3bttb.pdf

The Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager on Solar Orbiter

Aims . Metis is the first solar coronagraph designed for a space mission and is capable of performing simultaneous imaging of the off-limb solar corona in both visible and UV light. The observations obtained with Metis aboard the Solar Orbiter ESA-NASA observatory will enable us to diagnose, with unprecedented temporal coverage and spatial resolution, the structures and dynamics of the full corona in a square field of view (FoV) of ±2.9° in width, with an inner circular FoV at 1.6°, thus spanning the solar atmosphere from 1.7 R ⊙ to about 9 R ⊙ , owing to the eccentricity of the spacecraft orbit. Due to the uniqueness of the Solar Orbiter mission profile, Metis will be able to observe the solar corona from a close (0.28 AU, at the closest perihelion) vantage point, achieving increasing out-of-ecliptic views with the increase of the orbit inclination over time. Moreover, observations near perihelion, during the phase of lower rotational velocity of the solar surface relative to the spacecraft, allow longer-term studies of the off-limb coronal features, thus finally disentangling their intrinsic evolution from effects due to solar rotation.Methods . Thanks to a novel occultation design and a combination of a UV interference coating of the mirrors and a spectral bandpass filter, Metis images the solar corona simultaneously in the visible light band, between 580 and 640 nm, and in the UV H I Lyman-α line at 121.6 nm. The visible light channel also includes a broadband polarimeter able to observe the linearly polarised component of the K corona. The coronal images in both the UV H I Lyman-α and polarised visible light are obtained at high spatial resolution with a spatial scale down to about 2000 km and 15 000 km at perihelion, in the cases of the visible and UV light, respectively. A temporal resolution down to 1 s can be achieved when observing coronal fluctuations in visible light.Results . The Metis measurements, obtained from different latitudes, will allow for complete characterisation of the main physical parameters and dynamics of the electron and neutral hydrogen/proton plasma components of the corona in the region where the solar wind undergoes the acceleration process and where the onset and initial propagation of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) take place. The near-Sun multi-wavelength coronal imaging performed with Metis, combined with the unique opportunities offered by the Solar Orbiter mission, can effectively address crucial issues of solar physics such as: the origin and heating/acceleration of the fast and slow solar wind streams; the origin, acceleration, and transport of the solar energetic particles; and the transient ejection of coronal mass and its evolution in the inner heliosphere, thus significantly improving our understanding of the region connecting the Sun to the heliosphere and of the processes generating and driving the solar wind and coronal mass ejections.Conclusions . This paper presents the scientific objectives and requirements, the overall optical design of the Metis instrument, the thermo-mechanical design, and the processing and power unit; reports on the results of the campaigns dedicated to integration, alignment, and tests, and to the characterisation of the instrument performance; describes the operation concept, data handling, and software tools; and, finally, the diagnostic techniques to be applied to the data, as well as a brief description of the expected scientific products. The performance of the instrument measured during calibrations ensures that the scientific objectives of Metis can be pursued with success.

/pdf/metis-the-solar-orbiter-visible-light-and-ultraviolet-1w9xsgyfm9.pdf

Metis: the Solar Orbiter visible light and ultraviolet coronal imager

Context. The Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) is part of the remote sensing instrument package of the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter mission that will explore the inner heliosphere and observe the Sun from vantage points close to the Sun and out of the ecliptic. Solar Orbiter will advance the “connection science” between solar activity and the heliosphere.Aims. With EUI we aim to improve our understanding of the structure and dynamics of the solar atmosphere, globally as well as at high resolution, and from high solar latitude perspectives.Methods. The EUI consists of three telescopes, the Full Sun Imager and two High Resolution Imagers, which are optimised to image in Lyman-α and EUV (17.4 nm, 30.4 nm) to provide a coverage from chromosphere up to corona. The EUI is designed to cope with the strong constraints imposed by the Solar Orbiter mission characteristics. Limited telemetry availability is compensated by state-of-the-art image compression, onboard image processing, and event selection. The imposed power limitations and potentially harsh radiation environment necessitate the use of novel CMOS sensors. As the unobstructed field of view of the telescopes needs to protrude through the spacecraft’s heat shield, the apertures have been kept as small as possible, without compromising optical performance. This led to a systematic effort to optimise the throughput of every optical element and the reduction of noise levels in the sensor.Results. In this paper we review the design of the two elements of the EUI instrument: the Optical Bench System and the Common Electronic Box. Particular attention is also given to the onboard software, the intended operations, the ground software, and the foreseen data products.Conclusions. The EUI will bring unique science opportunities thanks to its specific design, its viewpoint, and to the planned synergies with the other Solar Orbiter instruments. In particular, we highlight science opportunities brought by the out-of-ecliptic vantage point of the solar poles, the high-resolution imaging of the high chromosphere and corona, and the connection to the outer corona as observed by coronagraphs.

/pdf/the-solar-orbiter-eui-instrument-the-extreme-ultraviolet-14c0d04uf5.pdf

The Solar Orbiter EUI instrument: The Extreme Ultraviolet Imager

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The Solar Orbiter EUI instrument: The Extreme Ultraviolet Imager