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Home > About us > Media > Archived news > 2022 > Two articles led by LPP are published in Astronomy & Astrophysics special issue dedicated for the first observations of Solar Orbiter
Two articles led by LPP are published in Astronomy & Astrophysics special issue dedicated for the first observations of Solar Orbiter
All the versions of this article: [English] [français]
LPP is directly involved in the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter mission by delivering the Low Frequency Receiver (LFR, Lead-CoI: Thomas Chust) which is part of the Radio and Plasma Wave (RPW) instrumental consortium led by LESIA (PI: Milan Maksimovic). The spacecraft was launched on the 10th of February 2020 to study the properties and the dynamics of the upper atmosphere of the Sun and the solar wind.
1. Observations of whistler mode waves by Solar Orbiter’s RPW Low Frequency Receiver (LFR): In-flight performance and first results
The LFR is designed to characterize the low frequency (≤ 10 kHz) electric and magnetic fields that develop, propagate, interact, and dissipate in the solar wind plasma. Combined with observations of the particles and the DC magnetic field, LFR measurements will help to improve the understanding of the heating and acceleration processes at work during solar wind expansion.
In this paper, T. Chust et al. 2021 demonstrate the capability of LFR to observe and analyze a variety of low frequency plasma waves by taking advantage of whistler mode wave observations made just after the near-Earth commissioning phase of Solar Orbiter. In particular, this is related to its capability of measuring the wave normal vector, the phase velocity, and the Poynting vector for determining the propagation characteristics of the waves. Several case studies of whistler mode waves are presented, using all possible LFR onboard digital processing products, waveforms, spectral matrices, and basic wave parameters. Here, whistler mode waves are very properly identified and characterized, along with their Doppler-shifted frequency, based on the waveform capture as well as on the LFR onboard spectral analysis. These first whistler observations show a good overall consistency between the RPW LFR data, indicating that many science results on these waves, as well as on other plasma waves, can be obtained by Solar Orbiter in the solar wind.
2. Solar Orbiter’s first Venus flyby: observations from the Radio and Plasma Wave instrument
On December 27, 2020, Solar Orbiter completed its first gravity assist manoeuvre of Venus (VGAM1) providing the spacecraft with sufficient velocity to get closer to the Sun and observe its poles from progressively higher inclinations. During this flyby the RPW consortium had the opportunity to perform high cadence measurements and study the plasma properties in the induced magnetosphere of Venus.
In this paper, L. Z. Hadid et al., 2021 review the main observations of the RPW instrument during VGAM1 which provided unprecedented high frequency magnetic and electric field measurements in Venus’ induced magnetosphere for continuous frequency ranges and with high time resolution. These observations allowed conclusive identification of various plasma waves at higher frequencies than previously observed and detailed investigation regarding the structure of the induced magnetosphere of Venus. Furthermore, the particular orbit geometry of Solar Orbiter, allowed the first investigation of the nature of the plasma waves continuously from the bow-shock to the magnetosheath, extending to ∼70 planetary radii in the far distant tail region.
Also in this section :
- 2022 Summer School for undergraduate students: From the laboratory to the distant universe, the World of Plasmas
- Henri Decauchy defended his PhD "Physics of cold plasma jets - Fundamental study of guided streamers and applications to oncology"
- Lui Habl defended his PhD "Investigation of DC and RF biased gridded ion thruster plume phenomena"
- Review on physics of plasma jets and interaction with surfaces
- Pascal Chabert receives the Silver Medal from CNRS
- Giulia Cozzani, former Ph.D. student at LPP, has been awarded with the Vincenzo Ferraro Prize 2022
- Audrey Chatain has been awarded the 2021 René Pellat prize from SFP (French Physics Society)
- The first international symposium on CO2 recycling by plasma/catalysis closes the H2020 PIONEER project
- A competition for the spontaneous rotation of the plasma
- Public outreach conference on the Solar Orbiter mission and the Sun’s influence on Earth at the Plaisir Castle park
- Non Thermal Plasmas for in situ resources utilization (ISRU) in Mars missions
- Science Festival 2022
- Jean-Paul Booth receives the 2019 Plasma Prize Award of the American Vacuum Society
- Océane Blaise defended her PhD "Cold atmospheric plasma improves bactericidal activity and stimulates phagosome maturation of macrophages"
- Robin Varennes defended his PhD "Flow drive in tokamak plasmas: competition and synergies between turbulence and neoclassical effects"
- Benjamin Esteves defended his "Investigation of iodine plasmas for space propulsion applications"
- Jonas August defended his PhD "Etude des effets d’un plasma froid d’air ambiant sur la physiologie des graines d’Arabidopsis"
- Soboh Alqeeq defended his PhD "Energy conversion processes related to dipolarization fronts in the Earth magnetotail"
- Nicolas Aunai defended his HDR «Studying magnetic reconnection via modeling and observations in the Earth magnetosphere »
- Opening of applications for the Master M2 of Physics of Plasmas and Fusion
