Speaker
Description
The international solar physics community currently enjoys access to a broad range of world-leading ground and space-based facilities in which the UK plays major hardware and science leadership roles (e.g. STEREO, Hinode, DKIST and Solar Orbiter (EUI, SPICE, SWA and MAG). UK leadership through these existing missions and facilities has led to significant roles (science and instrumentation) for the UK in the next generation of solar missions currently in development: MUSE (Multi-slit Solar Explorer) and SOLAR-C. Together these two missions are perfectly suited to addressing the major outstanding questions that were identified by the ESA/JAXA/NASA Next Generation Solar Physics Mission science definition team. The combination of SOLAR-C’s broad temperature coverage and MUSE’s high cadence data will for the first time properly capture the multi-scale physical processes that dominate the solar atmosphere.
In this presentation I will give an overview of the capabilities of MUSE and SOLAR-C and the UK’s current role. I’ll then look further forward to how the UK might further leverage current roles for greater return, as well as to new mission and instrument concepts where the UK is currently either leading developments or providing critical science expertise.
