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We organise the London Space Plasma Meeting (LSPM) series in collaboration with Imperial College London and Queen Mary University of London.
The meeting opens with a keynote talk by an external speaker. After the keynote presentation, we will have a discussion of work done at the participating institutions. A few participants will present their work in not more than three slides to form the basis for this discussion.
Past Meetings
The first meeting of the LSPM series took place on 14 March 2018.
Title: The Kinetic Solar Wind and the Solar Orbiter & Parker Solar Probe Missions
Speaker: Milan Maksimovic from the Paris-Meudon Observatory
Location: UCL IOE (20 Bedford Way) - Room 537
Abstract:
Non-thermal electron and ion velocity distribution functions are permanently observed in the solar wind. The exact origins of such departures from equilibrium Maxwell-Boltzmann distributions remain unclear. It is, however, believed that the rarity of Coulomb collisions in most of the extended corona and solar wind plays a crucial role in the mechanisms which produce and/or maintain such distributions.
During this seminar, I will review the important observations concerning these distribution functions and discuss about their possible coronal origin and role in the solar wind physics. I will also highlight the relevance for this topic of the Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter missions which will make measurements in the solar wind as close as 60 and 9.5 solar radii from the Sun, respectively.