The Sun’s magnetic activity and its outflow of charged particles—the solar wind—constantly buffet Earth and other planets, yet the precise physical mechanisms driving these processes remain poorly understood. This programme uses data from spacecraft and ground-based telescopes to tackle five linked questions: what controls solar magnetic eruptions, how the solar wind forms and travels through the Solar System, how it interacts with Earth’s magnetic field to drive aurorae and radiation belts, how similar plasma interactions play out at other planets and comets, and how planetary surfaces evolve through cratering and other processes. The work is fundamental science—it will not produce a new battery or a faster computer chip. But understanding solar activity and space weather matters for the infrastructure that quietly keeps society running: satellite communications, GPS navigation, and power grids can all be disrupted by geomagnetic storms. Better models of solar wind and magnetospheric dynamics could improve forecasting of these events, giving operators time to protect vulnerable systems.
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The aims of the solar system programme at UCL-MSSL are to break new ground in the understanding of the physical processes at work within each of our theme topics: a) solar magnetic activity, its causes, consequences, and influence on the Solar System b) solar wind formation and propagation and evolution through the heliosphere; including the source of the solar wind and understanding which regions on the Sun control the solar wind, and in-situ dynamics of energy transport in space plasmas. c) solar wind interaction with the Earth's magnetosphere; including solar wind physics at kinetic and large scales, reconnection, magnetospheric acceleration and transport processes and processes controlling the aurora and radiation belts d) solar wind and plasma interactions at other planetary environments; including ionospheric processes, comet-plasma interactions, planetary magnetospheric plasma and charged dust populations and processes driving aurorae and X-ray emission in atmospheres and on surfaces e) planetary surface formation processes; including cratering chronology and dynamic feature tracking via super-resolution restoration These goals are addressed using data from space- and ground- based instruments, and modelling.
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