Agenda for Solar Mission Forum 7 January 2016, at the RAS

The UK Solar Missions Forum will change the format this year in order to focus more on the science questions from the Solar System Advisory board and how different facilities will address these.

SSAP background

At the presentation of the updated Solar System Roadmap to STFC’s Science Board during the summer, the Chair of SSAP was encouraged to provide a greater level of prioritisation within the next revision. This applies primarily, but not exclusively, to continued operation of current missions and facilities, as well as to future opportunities. SSAP recognise that the nature of mission and facility opportunities is such that it is impractical for the community to prioritise one opportunity above all others, but encourage the individual communities within the solar system area to come up with a level of mission and facility priorities that reflects their ability to contribute to answering the most important science questions, and the perceived likelihood that they will be realised. As part of this exercise consideration should be given to likely funding timescales. The SSAP roadmap is available at:

http://www.stfc.ac.uk/stfc/includes/themes/MuraSTFC/assets/legacy/ssaproadmapv8.pdf

The agenda of the meeting will be:

  • Chair (Philippa Browning)
  • SSAP science goals (Sarah Matthews)
  • Summary of status of current facilities (Louise Harra)
  • UK-funded (5 mins each)
    • Hinode (Louise Harra)
    • STEREO (Richard Harrison)
    • BiSON (Yvonne Elsworth)
    • ROSA-DST (Mihalis Mathioudakis)
  • Other facilities used are
    • LOFAR (Mario),
    • ALMA (Eamon).
    • The contact points will be asked to provide me with a 2 sentence summary of status and funding.
  • In build phase – UK-funded. Each of these should last approximately 5 mins to allow time for discussion. They should be described in the context of the science questions from the solar system roadmap to highlight for the mission meets those requirements.
    • Solar Orbiter – mission and EUI (Louise Harra)
    • Solar Orbiter – SPICE (Andrzej Fludra)
    • DKIST (Mihalis Mathioudakis)
  • Other facilities that will be used. (no slides – brief verbal summary)
    • SKA (Eduard Kontar)
    • GOES-R EUV Imager (Richard Harrison)
  • Potential future missions/facilities – 5-minute pitches to describe how these fit in with the solar system roadmap, the timeline and potential funding source.
    • Solar-C (Louise Harra)
    • EST (Sarah Matthews)
    • HiRISE (Robertus Erdelyi)
    • Space weather/Carrington (Richard Harrison/Lucie Green)
    • Space weather from a modelling perspective (Duncan MacKay)
    • Hi-C2 (Robert Walsh)
    • HPC (Tony Arber: TBC)
  • Wrap up discussion: led by Philippa with input from Sarah/Alan/Richard – priorities for the solar community related to SSAP and the Science Board view.