The Sun constantly bombards Earth with charged particles and radiation, and this group is working out exactly how those solar storms form and travel through space. This matters because solar flares and coronal mass ejections can knock out satellites, disrupt radio communications, and expose astronauts and aircrew to dangerous radiation. Current space weather forecasts are unreliable because scientists still do not fully understand the fundamental physics driving these events—how the Sun’s outer atmosphere heats to millions of degrees, how the solar wind accelerates to a million miles per hour, or how Earth’s radiation belts respond to incoming energy. If this research succeeds, it will improve predictions of space weather, giving satellite operators, power grid managers, and airlines more time to protect critical infrastructure. Better models could reduce the risk of losing communications, navigation, or electricity during a major solar storm. This is primarily fundamental science—understanding how magnetised plasmas behave across the universe, from the Sun to distant galaxies. But past fundamental research on the Sun led directly to the discovery of the solar wind and the development of space weather monitoring, so deeper knowledge here will almost certainly yield practical benefits for the technologies modern society depends on.
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The Solar and Space Physics research group at Northumbria University has a long-term research programme to understand the physics of the Sun, all aspects of the solar-terrestrial connection, and solar-like stars. The Sun displays a number of fascinating and dynamic phenomena such as powerful solar flares and giant, planet-sized concentrations of magnetic fields (sunspots). It also provides a unique window that permits us to examine in detail how stars behave. The Sun is made of a plasma (ionised gas) threaded by a strong magnetic field. Such magnetised plasmas are common throughout the Universe (e.g. active galaxy nuclei, nebula, interstellar medium), hence our research also advances the understanding across multiple research communities. Furthermore, we are also keen to determine how the Sun influences the near-Earth environment. The Sun is the powerhouse of our solar system and its daily variability can have profound consequences for Earth. Space Weather is the name given to the impact of events (e.g. solar flares, coronal mass ejections) from the Sun on our technologically-advanced society. This impact is both beautiful (e.g. Northern lights) and potentially extremely detrimental (e.g. damaging satellites, increasing radiation that is harmful to aircrew and astronauts). Thus, in order to understand and address the risks associated with Space Weather, we need to understand its origins and drivers. Our work aims to address one of STFC's Science Challenges, namely "How do stars and planetary systems develop and how do they support the existence of life?", as well as key questions in the STFC Roadmap for Solar System Research, e.g. "What are the structures, dynamics and energetics of the Sun?" and "What are the fundamental processes at work in the Solar System?". This proposal focuses on different aspects of these current challenges and questions, with a natural synergy across the projects that contributes towards our long-term goal of a complete and detailed understanding of the Sun and the solar-terrestrial connection. Here, we are interested in discovering answers to problems such as: What are the details underpinning powerful solar flares that give off intense radiation (X-rays, gamma rays) and accelerate particles to relativistic speeds? What are the fundamental processes that heat the outer envelope of the Sun's atmosphere to millions of degrees, and accelerate streams of charged particles away from the Sun (the solar wind) at speeds of a million miles per hour? How is the solar wind is formed into a supersonic and superalfvenic flow, and how does that flow evolves as it propagates through interplanetary space? Can we understand the dynamics of Earth's Van Allen Radiation Belts (one of the highest priority questions for the international space physics community)? Can we identify the physical reasons for crucial wave activity in Earth's magnetosphere? To address these fundamental, yet unanswered, questions, our research makes use of advanced mathematical techniques, cutting-edge computer simulations and Data Intensive Science techniques. We utilise the highest-quality data available from state-of-the-art solar and solar-terrestrial instruments (e.g. ESA's Solar Orbiter, JAXA's Arase, and NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission, Parker Solar Probe, Solar Dynamic Observatory and Van Allen Probe) incorporating information from across the electromagnetic spectrum (e.g. visible, EUV, X-ray) and analysing this with methods drawn from advanced statistics and machine learning.
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