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Solar and Space Physics: A Science for a Technological Society
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SOLAR AND SPACE PHYSICS: A SCIENCE FOR A TECHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY
also participated in most survey committee teleconferences and face-to-face meetings. 3 Notably, panel
leads were full participants in the survey committee meetings that developed the overarching scientific
motivations and key science goals for the decade, the latter of which are described in detail in Chapter 1
and highlighted below:
Motivation 1. To understand our home in the solar system.
Motivation 2. To predict the changing space environment and its societal impact.
Motivation 3. To explore space to reveal universal physical processes.
Key Science Goal 1. Determine the origins of the Sun’s activity and predict the variations in the
space environment.
Key Science Goal 2. Determine the dynamics and coupling of Earth’s magnetosphere, ionosphere,
and atmosphere and their response to solar and terrestrial inputs.
Key Science Goal 3. Determine the interaction of the Sun with the solar system and the interstellar
medium.
Key Science Goal 4. Discover and characterize fundamental processes that occur both within the
heliosphere and throughout the universe.
The panels cast their scientific prioritization in the form of discipline goals and priorities, from which
they derived more detailed scientific imperatives—actions that are needed to make progress—and, finally,
implementation scenarios or reference mission concepts. It is important to recognize that panel-specific
imperatives are not equivalent to survey report recommendations, which can be offered only by the decadal
survey committee. 4
The work of the three discipline panels was fundamental to the decadal survey, and it forms the foundation of Part I of this report. In particular, each of the panels’ emphases for research in the field was brought
forward to the survey committee for consideration and possible action in the form of a report recommendation. In the further course of this work, a set of spacecraft mission concepts that would achieve particular
science goals of each individual panel was developed and evaluated for cost and technical readiness. That
evaluation process is described in Part I (Chapter 1) and in Appendix E.
3 However, panel leadership was excluded at meetings of the survey committee during the final phase of the study when the committee’s recommendations were established. These are shown in the Summary and Part I of this report.
4 The report of the decadal survey committee and its recommendations are found in Part I of this report. Key recommendations of
the survey committee are aggregated in the report Summary.
Solar and Space Physics: A Science for a Technological Society
148
SOLAR AND SPACE PHYSICS: A SCIENCE FOR A TECHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY
also participated in most survey committee teleconferences and face-to-face meetings. 3 Notably, panel
leads were full participants in the survey committee meetings that developed the overarching scientific
motivations and key science goals for the decade, the latter of which are described in detail in Chapter 1
and highlighted below:
Motivation 1. To understand our home in the solar system.
Motivation 2. To predict the changing space environment and its societal impact.
Motivation 3. To explore space to reveal universal physical processes.
Key Science Goal 1. Determine the origins of the Sun’s activity and predict the variations in the
space environment.
Key Science Goal 2. Determine the dynamics and coupling of Earth’s magnetosphere, ionosphere,
and atmosphere and their response to solar and terrestrial inputs.
Key Science Goal 3. Determine the interaction of the Sun with the solar system and the interstellar
medium.
Key Science Goal 4. Discover and characterize fundamental processes that occur both within the
heliosphere and throughout the universe.
The panels cast their scientific prioritization in the form of discipline goals and priorities, from which
they derived more detailed scientific imperatives—actions that are needed to make progress—and, finally,
implementation scenarios or reference mission concepts. It is important to recognize that panel-specific
imperatives are not equivalent to survey report recommendations, which can be offered only by the decadal
survey committee. 4
The work of the three discipline panels was fundamental to the decadal survey, and it forms the foundation of Part I of this report. In particular, each of the panels’ emphases for research in the field was brought
forward to the survey committee for consideration and possible action in the form of a report recommendation. In the further course of this work, a set of spacecraft mission concepts that would achieve particular
science goals of each individual panel was developed and evaluated for cost and technical readiness. That
evaluation process is described in Part I (Chapter 1) and in Appendix E.
3 However, panel leadership was excluded at meetings of the survey committee during the final phase of the study when the committee’s recommendations were established. These are shown in the Summary and Part I of this report.
4 The report of the decadal survey committee and its recommendations are found in Part I of this report. Key recommendations of
the survey committee are aggregated in the report Summary.