Solar Physics Facilities Review Panel (SPFRP): Review of the UK’s Current and Future Potential Investment in Solar Physics Facilities: 2017 – 2025+
Panel Membership: Gerry Doyle (Chair), Daniel Brown, Bill Chaplin1, Ineke De Moortel2, Robertus Erdelyl3, Huw Morgan4
(Panel membership: 1Chair of the UKSA Solar Post-Launch Support Committee, 2Member of UKSA Solar PLS Committee, 3Non-core member of Science Board, 4Chair of the Solar System Advisory Panel)
Executive Summary
1. The UK Solar Physics community relies on a mix of theory, (HPC) modelling, data analysis, ground and space-based facilities, which based on the community survey should continue. Future investment should not be at the expense of these core strengths, where the UK community is internationally leading. 2. The recommendations and conclusions of the Roadmap for Solar System Research, produced by the Solar System Advisory Panel in 2015, still stand: this new document should be seen as an update/extension, which focusses on updates in facilities and new opportunities that have arisen since 2015. 3. More than 50% of the facilities we list have no major UK investment, yet they are an integral part of the community’s multi-wavelength/multi-access needs. 4. Current facilities with significant UK involvement and/or data usage (including those no longer collecting data but still seeing significant exploitation) are, in no particular order: Hinode, STEREO, SDO, ROSA, BiSON, SoHO, LOFAR, RHESSI, ACE, Wind, DSCOVR, Cluster, Themis, SST, Big Bear, ALMA, and IRIS. Of these, Hinode, STEREO, LOFAR, SST, Cluster, DKIST and Solar Orbiter are currently receiving STFC/UKSA funding, with involvement in the others funded via the grants line. 5. The panel recommends additional investment in HPC facilities, for modelling and for data analysis. Current applications to the STFC-funded Dirac facilities are oversubscribed by at least a factor of three, without accounting for the use of other HPC facilities by the community. 6. The UK has a growing community in ground-based solar physics. The community currently uses three ground-based facilities, SST, Dunn Solar Telescope and Big Bear with interest in instruments that will be part of India's proposed building of a 2m-class facility, and the European Solar Telescope. DKIST observing will start in late 2019.
1. Introduction
The Solar Physics Facilities Review Panel (SPFRP) is an ad hoc panel formed at the request of STFC Science Board to undertake a strategic review of UK needs and access requirements on current and future solar physics facilities. The objective is to ensure that the strategic landscape in this research area is well-defined and up-to-date.
A Roadmap for Solar System Research was produced by the Solar System Advisory Panel in 2015. The SPFRP has now been asked to produce a new report, highlighting changes since the 2015 Roadmap, showing the pathway and recommendations for the development of future capabilities and facilities. This update is especially timely given the current and potential future UK investments in the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) and the European Solar Telescope (EST) as well as space missions including, for example, HINODE, STEREO and the soon to be launched Solar Orbiter.
The SPFRP was asked by Science Board to consult with the UK Solar Physics community in order to identify crucial capabilities and facilities (including both space- and ground-based observations) 1 that are required to deliver the relevant, key science goals in the STFC science roadmap. To this end, the Panel issued a community questionnaire in July 2017 (see appendix). The returns were analyzed and discussed by the Panel, and this report is the outcome of that consolidation and review exercise.
The UK solar physics community relies on a mix of theory, (HPC) modelling, data analysis, ground and space-based facilities, which based on the community survey should continue. It is important to note that the recommendations and conclusions of the 2015 Roadmap still stand: this new document should be seen as an update/extension, which focusses on updates in facilities and new opportunities that have arisen since 2015. As in the 2015 Roadmap, we have not attempted to give a priority listing, nor a distinction between those facilities where the UK has a hardware investment and those which the community uses for science exploration. More than 50% of the listed facilities have no major UK investment, yet they are an integral part of the community’s multi- wavelength/multi-access needs.
2. Overview: Science Questions and Facilities
The key science questions highlighted by the 2015 SSAP report include:
● What are the causes, consequences and predictability of solar magnetic variability and the solar cycle? ● What are the structures, dynamics and energetics of the Sun? ● What are the underlying processes that drive Sun-planet connections? ● What are the fundamental processes at work in the Solar System?
In order to continue its internationally leading role addressing these questions the UK Solar Physics community needs continued access to state-of-the-art observational facilities (both space- and ground-based) that cover a broad range of wavelengths and viewpoints, and which map to a wide range of depths from the solar interior through the atmosphere to the heliosphere. Moreover, in order to exploit the full science potential of the data that are now available, and those that will be coming available thanks to a new generation of satellites and telescopes, the UK community requires access to world-leading, state-of-the-art HPC capabilities. The requirements on HPC cannot be overstated.
Current facilities with significant UK involvement and/or data usage (including those no longer collecting data but still seeing significant exploitation) are, in no particular order: Hinode, STEREO, SDO, ROSA, BiSON, SoHO, LOFAR, RHESSI, ACE, Wind, DSCOVR, Cluster, Themis, SST, ALMA, and IRIS. Of these, Hinode, STEREO, LOFAR, SST, Cluster, DKIST and Solar Orbiter are currently receiving STFC/UKSA funding, with involvement in the others funded via the grants line.
Future and planned facilities that either already have significant UK involvement and/or will be of considerable interest from a data-usage perspective, include: Solar Orbiter, Aditya L1, DKIST, EST, Parker Solar Probe, Next Generation Solar Physics Mission (previously called Solar-C), Proba3, and SPARK. Further missions in the planning stage, such as THOR, PUNCH, L5 Mission/Carrington will also be of interest to the UK community.
Regarding current facilities:
● Hinode, SoHO, STEREO, SDO and IRIS missions are key to understanding the physical processes in emerging and evolving magnetic fields across all temporal and spatial scales. The Hinode and SDO missions provide high-resolution data on the flows and magnitude of the magnetic field that drives activity at all scales. The UK-led spectrometer EIS provides critical information on plasma parameters such as flows as the magnetic field varies. This is
2 complemented by the long-established UK-led SOHO/CDS instrument that has provided EUV spectral imaging for 17 years and will continue with involvement in IRIS.
● RHESSI continues to provide outstanding data on high-energy solar events, sites for particle acceleration, and in the future, Proba3 (Fresnel Lens) will image the hottest flare plasma, at sub-arcsecond spatial scales that approach fundamental structural coronal scales. In future, SPARK will target the whole range of particle acceleration, from suprathermal electrons to relativistic ions, through the combination of imaging and spectroscopy.
● STEREO provides a heliospheric imaging capability, led from the UK, which is unique in the study of Coronal Mass Ejections from onset to Earth impact, feeding into studies of coronal structure and evolution as well as issues such as SEP production.
● BiSON, SoHO, Hinode, HMI/SDO (and in the future Solar Orbiter) provide global and local helioseismology measurements as well as vector magnetograph measurements to measure accurately the emerging flux.
● LOFAR (and in future SKA), together with other ground- and space-based instruments that observe the Sun in radio, optical, EUV, and X-ray wavelengths, will study dynamical aspects of solar activity from the millisecond to second range. ALMA is currently providing chromospheric temperature maps, exploring a wavelength range not previously looked at by solar physicists.
● Cluster, ACE, Wind, STEREO & DSCOVR are an integral part of the space weather programme. Such activities should continue via the Carrington project.
● The UK's Solar Physics community involvement in ground-based facilities was rekindled with STFC's investment in ROSA (Rapid Oscillations in the Solar Atmosphere), installed on the Dunn Solar Telescope (commissioned in August 2008). Ground-based observations provide data at a significantly higher spatial and temporal resolution in the photosphere and chromosphere than their space-based equivalents, which is necessary to probe the fundamental small-scale plasma dynamics in these regions. With additional funding for use of the Swedish Solar Telescope and the investment in designing the detectors for the optical instruments on DKIST, the UK has a growing community in ground based solar physics; as an example, in the last SOLARNET suite of applications, UK PIs amounted to 75% of the proposals. The UK community's use of ground-based facilities continues with applications to Big Bear and interest in using unique instruments on India's proposed building of a 2m-class facility and the European Solar Telescope (see discussion later).
With regards to future facilities, we flag a few facilities which already have significant UK community involvement:
● The Solar Orbiter mission (plus Parker Solar Probe) with its unique orbit, will provide a view of the poles to allow helioseismic measurements of that unexplored region – this will allow us to probe the solar atmosphere at close to fundamental scales.
● The multi-wavelength capabilities of DKIST (and in the future, EST) will provide observations from the photosphere/chromosphere at high spatial and temporal resolutions. DKIST (and in the future EST) will resolve, with unprecedented sensitivity, individual magnetic flux concentrations, observing their emergence, structure and dynamics, measuring their field strengths and direction in the photosphere, chromosphere and corona. EST will provide unprecedented insight into chromospheric physics, the driver of many dynamic phenomena taking place in the corona. 3
3. Summary of community feedback
The main points raised by the UK Solar Physics community input may be summarized as follows:
● The community needs multi-wavelength high-resolution coverage across a range of facilities, both space- and ground-based.
● Community strengths lie mostly in theory, HPC and space-based observations; but ground- based observations are clearly an emerging area, and featured stronger when community members flagged future strengths.
● There were very strong statements made regarding HPC requirements. A common concern raised was that current arrangements regarding HPC provision are inadequate to accommodate the modelling demands placed by modern data and analysis requirements. Significant improvements in capacity, speed and access are needed, otherwise the UK community will not be able to capitalize on its undoubted strengths and expertise in this area.
● The community feels strongly that additional support is needed for more PhD students and postdoctoral researchers, to realize the full exploitation of the UK investment made in solar physics facilities.
● With regards to the industrial engagement and the impact agenda, we note no significant changes compared on the 2015 Roadmap (e.g., opportunities relating to space weather forecasting and involvement in bespoke space weather missions, with space weather events being on the National Risk Register).
4. Committee recommendations
● Levels of investment must be such as to ensure that the UK Solar Physics community has access to data across all wavelengths and are leading involvement in instrument build and development.
● Community capability and capacity needs to be maintained (i.e., in theory and HPC modelling, analysis, instrumentation, space weather), and future investment should not be at the expense of these core strengths, where the UK community is internationally leading.
● There is community support for EST. The Panel agrees and recommends that PPRP review a request for support for UK involvement in EST.
● The panel recommends investment in more HPC facilities, for modelling and for data analysis, e.g. raw data from DKIST will be around 50TB/day. Current applications to the STFC-funded Dirac facilities are oversubscribed by at least a factor of 3, without accounting for the use of other HPC facilities by the community (for which no hardware or access funding is provided by STFC).
● There are important opportunities in the space-weather domain, where the UK community is able to bring its expertise and experience to bear both in terms of modelling and also active involvement in future planned bespoke space-weather missions like Carrington. The UK community needs to be alert and pro-active to potential opportunities in this area.
4 ● Some Universities are beginning to take advantage of small mission or R&D opportunities (e.g. cubesats, small rocket launches etc.), Science Board (and UKSA) may want to consider whether there is scope for seedcorn funding to help support such activities, which may act as an important springboard for future activities and industrial engagement.
● The grants line, including fellowships, studentships, and industrial studentships, is of vital importance and should be enhanced to realize the full exploitation of the UK investment in solar physics facilities.
APPENDICES
1. Community Survey 2. SSAP 2015 Roadmap 3. Key Points DKIST vs EST 4. A Glossary of facilities
5 Appendix 1. Community Survey
Solar Physics Facilities Review – community questionnaire
Introduction
The UK Solar Physics Facilities Review Panel (SPFRP) is an ad hoc panel that has been established by STFC Science Board to undertake a strategic review of the UK need for, and access to current and potential solar physics facilities.
As part of the review process, the Panel wish to consult the Community and is particularly interested to receive input on how STFC could best support your research and development to address the STFC Science Challenges now and in the future.
Please submit your views via the short questionnaire. The closing date for responses is 21st August 2017.
Thank you for your valuable input to this review.
UK Solar Physics Facilities Review Panel
1 / 5 Academic status:
If you selected Other, please specify:
Institution:
2. What is your primary research area in solar physics?
3. What are your top 3 science questions (with reference to the questions in the SSAP Roadmap)?
2 / 5 4. What solar physics facilities do you need to address these questions/goals?
5a. How important are these strengths for the UK currently? (On a scale of 1 - 10, with 10 the highest. You may put equal ratings for different strengths.)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Theory HPC modelling Ground based observations Space based observations, Instrumentations
5b. How important are these strengths for the UK in the future (5-10 years)? (On a scale of 1 - 10, with 10 the highest.) You may put equal ratings for different strengths.)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Theory HPC modelling Ground based observations Space based observations, Instrumentations
3 / 5 6. What facilities, technologies or capabilities should be provided for UK Solar Physics in the next 5, 10 & 20 years?
7. Do you see potential for industrial engagement and if so, what?
8. What impact opportunities do you see emerging from your current research?
9. Any other comments?
Thank you for your time in completing this questionnaire, your views are important to this review.
4 / 5 Appendix 2 Roadmap for Solar System Research July 2015