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Artist's impression of ESA's Solar Orbiter spacecraft (Credit: ESA/ATG medialab)

Published: 21 June 2024

Webinar with Louise Harra
(PMOD/WRC, Davos & ETH Zurich, Switzerland)

recorded on June 20, 2024

Game Changers Online Seminar

Solar Physics

Sun

Eruptive Events on the Sun – from Small to Large Scale

Online Seminar with Louise Harra
(PMOD/WRC, Davos & ETH Zurich, Switzerland)

The instruments measure the solar wind as it flows past the spacecraft as well as the sources of the wind across the electromagnetic spectrum. A scientific focus has been on understanding the small-scale jets and brightenings that can feed into the solar wind, as well as the larger scale eruptions now that the solar activity cycle is reaching its peak.

Abstract

The measurements show the highest resolutions in the corona ever achieved in a space mission, as well as the key measurements close to the Sun. In addition the spacecraft is using Venus fly-bys to slowly move of the theecliptic plane so that the first view of the solar poles will be obtained.

Recorded Webinar

About the Speaker

Louise Harra is director of the Physikalisch-Meteorologisches Observatorium Davos/World Radiation Center and an affiliated Professor at ETH-Zurich, Switzerland. Louise Harra graduated from Queens University, Belfast with a BSc (Hons) in Maths and Physics followed by a PhD in Physics in 1993. She moved to Japan to work on the Yohkoh spacecraft in JAXA/ISAS.

Following that she worked on the SOHO mission, whilst working on the development of the next Japanese solar mission, Hinode, which was launched in 2006 and still operational. She has worked on the Solar Orbiter mission since its conception in 1999 and is a co-PI of the EUV Imagers. She is PI of the Solar Spectral Irradiance Monitor on the next Japanese mission, Solar-C, to be launched in 2028. She has received a number of awards for her research in solar flares and solar wind, the most recent of which is the IoP Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin Medal.

History

Starting in the summer of 2020, the International Space Science Institute has organized the weekly on-line seminar series called “Game Changers”. After six series of weekly talks on the themes of “Missions that Changed the Game in Solar System, Astrophysics and Earth Sciences” , “Ideas and Findings about the Solar System, the Universe and our Terrestrial Environment”, “Habitability – From Cosmic to Microbial Scales”, “Viewing Earth from Space – the Changing Environment and Climate of our Planet”, and “Captivating Cosmology: From the Big Bang to Tomorrow” and the topic “Space Environmental Hazards: Mitigation and Prediction”, the webinar series continues on a monthly basis.

Credits ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Martel