Listed are all scientific papers resulting from an ISSI activity written or co-authored by ISSI Team members, Working Group members, Workshop participants, visitors or staff members.
Water and land surfaces on a planet interact in particular ways with gases in the atmosphere and with radiation from the star. These interactions define the environments that prevail on the planet, some of which may be more amenable to prebiotic chemistry, some to the evolution of more complex life.
The recent discovery of strong tidal dissipation in Saturn’s interior has radically changed our view of the Saturnian system. While some questions are naturally answered by the new paradigm, others are emerging and require further measurement. This article presents the next key questions to be addressed by future space missions and analysis.
The importance of uncertainty estimates for Essential Climate Variable (ECV) data records is well recognized. Most ECV observing systems now estimate and report uncertainties as part of the measurement and retrieval procedure instead of leaving uncertainty characterization to a diagnostic “ex-post” validation/evaluation procedure. This paper focuses on the validation or evaluation of these prognostic “ex-ante” uncertainties provided with satellite ECV climate data records.
The Atmosphere Imaging Assembly (AIA) 304 Å channel aboard the Solar Dynamic Observatory offers an unparalleled full-disk view of cool material at T ≈ 105 K emitted by the He II 304 Å spectral line. This opens the possibility for the in-depth and widespread analysis of the formation and evolution of small cool structures seen in the solar atmosphere.
Plasmaspheric hiss plays an important role in radiation belt electron dynamics, and its excitation and propagation have long attracted attention. During a substorm, Van Allen Probe B observed the disappearance of plasmaspheric hiss at the magnetic dip, which was driven by the injection of energetic protons. The perpendicular (to the magnetic field) components of both the wave vector and Poynting vector were directed mainly radially outward.
Accurate temperature diagnostics of the solar corona are necessary for detecting the heating and cooling processes, and better understanding the conversion of the magnetic energy into thermal energy.
To better understand the role of active galactic nuclei (AGN) in galaxy evolution, it is crucial to work with a complete and pure AGN sample. X-ray surveys are key to doing so, but their larger positional uncertainties complicate counterpart (CTP) association, further compounded by the limited availability of deep, uniform multi-wavelength ancillary data.
Since the dawn of the space age, observations of energetic particles in planetary radiation belts have been interpreted within a diffusive transport framework, even though the dominant processes that populate and deplete these belts—such as injections and moon-driven absorption—produce particle distributions that are highly structured and spatially localized.
The emission of volatiles from the surface and subsurface of planetary bodies can provide fundamental knowledge concerning their formation, evolution, and structure. There are a variety of physical processes that shape the structural, kinematic and thermal behavior of the released material.
This paper describes the flow of events which led ESA to select this Mars Express mission for a launch in 2003, following the failure of the Russian Mars 96 in 1996. The unique genesis of Mars Express is reflected in its system design, the payload selected, and the operation strategy.
