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The London Space Plasma Meeting (LSPM) is a seminar series that honours the longstanding inter-college collaborations between University College London, Imperial College London, and Queen Mary University of London in the research field of space plasma physics. These collaborations include spacecraft instrumentation, early-career workshops for science, and joint scientific publications.
The LSPM format begins with an early-career workshop that is well-attended by PhD students and postdoctoral researchers to promote the networking of early-career scientists. The meeting then continues with a keynote lecture by an external high-profile speaker that has made substantial contributions to the field of space plasma physics. After the keynote lectures, there are shorter presentations from each of the three institutions highlighting cutting-edge research and providing grounds for open discussion. The meeting is followed by a trip to the pub and a dinner in London.
LSPM #7
Title: The ESA M7 candidate mission Plasma Observatory
Speaker: Federica Marcucci from the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics
Date: 18 September 2024
Location: UCL – Gustave Tuck Lecture Theatre
Abstract:
In the recent decades there has been great progress in identifying the main physical processes at the base of the energization and transport in cosmic plasmas. Nevertheless, we have not yet reached their complete and final comprehension. Indeed, theory, simulations and observations have confirmed the great complexity of cosmic plasma processes. In this regard, we have learned, especially from multi-point observations from missions such as ESA/Cluster, NASA/MMS and NASA/THEMIS, that cross coupling among plasma scales has a fundamental role in the cosmic plasma dynamics. Simultaneous measurements at both large, fluid and small, kinetic scales are required to resolve scale coupling and ultimately fully understand plasma energization and energy transport processes. Such measurements are currently not available. Strong particle energization and massive energy transport occur and can be directly studied through in situ spacecraft measurements in the Magnetospheric System, the complex and highly dynamic plasma environment that is generated in near-Earth space by the interaction of the solar wind with the geomagnetic field. Here we present the Plasma Observatory (PO) multi-scale mission concept tailored to study plasma energization and energy transport in the Earth's Magnetospheric System through simultaneous measurements at both fluid and ion scales. PO baseline mission includes one mothercraft (MSC) and six identical smallsat daughtercraft (DSC) in two nested tetrahedra formation with MSC at the common vertex for both tetrahedra. PO baseline orbit is an HEO 8x17 RE orbit, covering all the key regions of the Magnetospheric System including the foreshock, the bow shock, the magnetosheath, the magnetopause, the magnetotail current sheet, and the transition region. The MSC payload provides a complete characterization of electromagnetic fields and particles in a single point with time resolution sufficient to resolve kinetic physics at sub-ion scales (for both protons and heavy ions) and fully characterize wave-particle interactions. The DSCs have identical payload, simpler than the MSC payload, yet giving a full characterization of the plasma at the ion and fluid scales and providing the context where energization and transport occurs (enabling 3D spatial gradients and quantities computation). These measurements will allow us to resolve scale coupling in fundamental plasma processes such as shocks, magnetic reconnection, turbulence, plasma instabilities, plasma jets, field-aligned currents and their combination and answer the two Plasma Observatory science questions (Q1) How are particles energized in space plasmas ? and (Q2) Which processes dominate energy transport and drive coupling between the different regions of the Earth’s Magnetospheric System? This is essential for understanding how our planet works, including space weather science, and is also important for the comprehension of distant astrophysical plasma environments.
Plasma Observatory is one of the three ESA M7 candidates, which have been selected in November 2023 for a competitive Phase A with a mission selection planned in 2026 and launch in 2037.
LSPM #6
Title: The Earth’s polar cusps: what did we learn from Cluster and what is expected from SMILE?
Speaker: Philippe Escoubet from the European Space Agency
Date: 31 January 2024
Location: Imperial College London – Blackett Lecture Theatre 3
Abstract:
The Earth’s polar cusps are two funnel shapes regions of the magnetoshere that allow direct entry of plasma from the solar wind into the magnetosphere and the ionosphere. Measuring precipitation of electrons and ions and changes in electric and magnetic fields inside the cusps gives crucial information on the coupling between the solar wind and the magnetosphere as well as the energy transfer in the Earth’s environment. In addition the polar cusps are one of the most dynamics region of the magnetosphere since they can move quickly in magnetic latitude and longitude according to the direction of the solar wind magnetic field or the solar wind dynamic pressure. Before Cluster the cusp was studied essentially by single spacecraft mission and the cusp shape, motion and particle precipitation were studied statistically using many cusp crossings. With Cluster, instantaneous measurements of the motion of the cusp could be captured and temporal and spatial changes could be distinguished for the first time. We will review highlights and unique observations of Cluster in the polar cusp.
Four spacecraft separated by a maximum of a few Earth’s radii cannot however measure the full shape of the exterior cusp that extends over many Earth’s radii. The SMILE mission is specifically designed to image the cusp and its adjacent region, the magnetosheath, over many Earth’s radii.
SMILE is a novel self-standing mission dedicated to observing the solar wind - magnetosphere coupling via simultaneous in situ solar ion and magnetic field measurements, soft X-ray imaging of the magnetosheath, magnetopause and polar cusps, and UV imaging of the northern hemisphere auroral oval. Remote sensing of the magnetosheath and cusps with soft X-ray imaging is made possible thanks to solar wind charge exchange (SWCX) X-ray emissions known to occur in the vicinity of the Earth's magnetosphere. SMILE is a joint mission between ESA and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) due for launch in the middle of 2025. SMILE science objectives as well as the latest scientific and technical developments, jointly undertaken by ESA, CAS and the international instrument teams, will be presented. SMILE will be complemented by ground-based observatories, new spacecraft missions such as TRACERS or GEO-X, as well as by theory and simulation investigations. This presentation will be dedicated to Graziella Branduardi-Raymont, SMILE mission Co-proposer and mission Co-PI, who passed away on 3rd November 2023.
LSPM #5
Title: Solar wind turbulence and magnetic field switchbacks: origin and evolution
Speaker: Marco Velli from the University of California, Los Angeles
Date: 25 January 2023
Location: QMUL – Room GC601
Abstract:
Parker Solar Probe was launched in 2018 to carry out the first in situ exploration of the outer solar corona and inner heliosphere. Its main goals were to trace the flow of energy that heats and accelerates the solar corona and solar wind, determine the structure and dynamics of the plasma and magnetic fields at the sources of the solar wind and explore mechanisms that accelerate and transport energetic particles. Among the significant surprises was the observation of the predominance of Alfvénic turbulence in solar wind streams and the ubiquitous presence of folds in the magnetic field, called switchbacks, that appear to come in patches. The origin of switchbacks has been attributed to pervasive interchange reconnection in regions of the solar surface with multi-polar magnetic fields, such as supergranule lanes or vertices in the low corona. Alternatively, switchbacks may originate as a general feature of Alfvénic turbulence in the inhomogeneous, gravitationally stratified solar corona. An effort to trace the origin and evolution of switchbacks therefore requires a review of the origin and evolution of fluctuations outward from the corona. This talk will provide an observational, mostly based on Parker, as well as a theoretical review of our knowledge of switchbacks and Alfvenic turbulence in the inner heliosphere.
LSPM #4
Title: The Sun and the solar wind
Speaker: Christopher T. Russell from the University of California, Los Angeles
Date: 06 November 2019
Location: UCL – G01 Medawar Building
LSPM #3
Title: Some first results from the FIELDS instrument suite on Parker Solar Probe
Speaker: Stuart D. Bale from the University of California, Berkeley
Date: 26 June 2019
Location: QMUL – Room GC601
Abstract:
The NASA Parker Solar Probe mission launched on August 12, 2018 and reached its first perihelion of 35.7 solar radii on November 5, 2018. The FIELDS instrument suite made the first measurements the solar wind magnetic field, DC electric fields, plasma waves, quasi-thermal noise, and radio emissions below ~20 MHz at this distance from the Sun. Here we present the status of the FIELDS instrument and an overview of early results from the first two perihelia. FIELDS measures large switchbacks of the radial magnetic field, copious ion cyclotron waves, whistler and Langmuir waves, as well as magnetized turbulence and magnetic field null points.
LSPM #2
Title: The Kinetic Solar Wind and the Solar Orbiter & Parker Solar Probe Missions
Speaker: Rumi Nakamura from the Institute for Space Research, Graz
Date: 21 November 2018
Location: Imperial College London – Blackett Lecture Theatre 3
LSPM #1
Title: The Kinetic Solar Wind and the Solar Orbiter & Parker Solar Probe Missions
Speaker: Milan Maksimovic from the Paris-Meudon Observatory
Date: 14 March 2018
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.
Impressions from the LSPM
