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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
the scientific potential of the ATST. Additional annual funding of around 4-5 percent of the capital cost of
the ATST will dramatically enhance its science yield.
10.5.4.2 Need for a National Science Foundation Midscale Projects Line
SHP Imperative: The SHP panel strongly supports the establishment within NSF of a competed funding program for midscale projects.
Justification: NSF does not have a means of funding midscale projects ranging from about $4 million to $135 million in FY 2010 dollars. Several previous bodies, including the 2010 decadal survey of
astronomy and astrophysics (Astro2010), 33 have recommended that NSF implement a competed funding
program for midscale projects similar to NASA’s Explorer model. A midscale funding program would enable
NSF to provide a more balanced and flexible response to scientific opportunities that are currently too
large to allow funding by the Major Research Instrumentation program and too small to qualify for funding by the Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction line. A midscale program would offer
excellent return by exploiting new techniques and instrumentation more rapidly, by ensuring a broader
scientific portfolio of exciting and timely programs, and by offering additional opportunities for training
scientists, engineers, and students. Examples of solar facilities that could be funded by this new line are
the Frequency-Agile Solar Radiotelescope (FASR) and the Coronal Solar Magnetism Observatory (COSMO).
They are described in more detail below.
10.5.4.3 Frequency-Agile Solar Radiotelescope
The SHP panel assigns high priority to NSF’s funding of construction and operation of FASR 34 to
produce three-dimensional images of the solar atmosphere with high temporal and spatial resolution.
Solar radio emission provides uniquely powerful sources of diagnostic information with the potential for
transformational insights into solar activity and its terrestrial impacts. That is because a number of distinct
emission mechanisms operate at radio wavelengths: thermal free-free emission is relevant to the quiet
solar atmosphere, thermal gyroresonance emission is a key mechanism operative in solar active regions,
nonthermal gyrosynchrotron emission from electrons with hundreds of kiloelectron volts 10 MeV plays a
central role in flares and CMEs, and a variety of coherent emission processes—such as plasma radiation,
familiar to aficionados of type II and type III radio bursts—make it possible to trace electron beams and
shocks in the solar corona and heliosphere. Radio observations and the diagnostic information that they
provide are highly complementary to next-generation observations at optical and infrared wavelengths
provided by the ATST and COSMO on the ground, at EUV wavelengths by Solar-C, and at X-ray wavelengths by SEE in space.
FASR is a solar-dedicated radiotelescope that provides a unique combination of superior imaging capability and broad instantaneous frequency coverage and thus exploits the powerful diagnostics available at
radio wavelengths. The potential value of such a facility has been recognized in high-priority recommendations of FASR in two previous decadal surveys conducted by the National Research Council. The 2003
decadal survey of solar and space physics recommended FASR as its highest-priority “small project” 35 in
recognition of the unique and transformative role that it will play in addressing basic research questions
33 NRC, New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 2010, p. 28.
34 D.E. Gary et al., The Frequency-Agile Solar Radiotelescope, white paper submitted to the Decadal Strategy for Solar and Space
Physics (Heliophysics), Paper 86; D.E. Gary et al., Particle Acceleration and Transport on the Sun: New Perspectives at Radio Wavelengths, white paper submitted to the Decadal Strategy for Solar and Space Physics (Heliophysics), Paper 87.
35 NRC, The Sun to the Earth—and Beyond: A Decadal Research Strategy in Solar and Space Physics, 2003, p. 54.
Solar and Space Physics: A Science for a Technological Society
316
SOLAR AND SPACE PHYSICS: A SCIENCE FOR A TECHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY
the scientific potential of the ATST. Additional annual funding of around 4-5 percent of the capital cost of
the ATST will dramatically enhance its science yield.
10.5.4.2 Need for a National Science Foundation Midscale Projects Line
SHP Imperative: The SHP panel strongly supports the establishment within NSF of a competed funding program for midscale projects.
Justification: NSF does not have a means of funding midscale projects ranging from about $4 million to $135 million in FY 2010 dollars. Several previous bodies, including the 2010 decadal survey of
astronomy and astrophysics (Astro2010), 33 have recommended that NSF implement a competed funding
program for midscale projects similar to NASA’s Explorer model. A midscale funding program would enable
NSF to provide a more balanced and flexible response to scientific opportunities that are currently too
large to allow funding by the Major Research Instrumentation program and too small to qualify for funding by the Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction line. A midscale program would offer
excellent return by exploiting new techniques and instrumentation more rapidly, by ensuring a broader
scientific portfolio of exciting and timely programs, and by offering additional opportunities for training
scientists, engineers, and students. Examples of solar facilities that could be funded by this new line are
the Frequency-Agile Solar Radiotelescope (FASR) and the Coronal Solar Magnetism Observatory (COSMO).
They are described in more detail below.
10.5.4.3 Frequency-Agile Solar Radiotelescope
The SHP panel assigns high priority to NSF’s funding of construction and operation of FASR 34 to
produce three-dimensional images of the solar atmosphere with high temporal and spatial resolution.
Solar radio emission provides uniquely powerful sources of diagnostic information with the potential for
transformational insights into solar activity and its terrestrial impacts. That is because a number of distinct
emission mechanisms operate at radio wavelengths: thermal free-free emission is relevant to the quiet
solar atmosphere, thermal gyroresonance emission is a key mechanism operative in solar active regions,
nonthermal gyrosynchrotron emission from electrons with hundreds of kiloelectron volts 10 MeV plays a
central role in flares and CMEs, and a variety of coherent emission processes—such as plasma radiation,
familiar to aficionados of type II and type III radio bursts—make it possible to trace electron beams and
shocks in the solar corona and heliosphere. Radio observations and the diagnostic information that they
provide are highly complementary to next-generation observations at optical and infrared wavelengths
provided by the ATST and COSMO on the ground, at EUV wavelengths by Solar-C, and at X-ray wavelengths by SEE in space.
FASR is a solar-dedicated radiotelescope that provides a unique combination of superior imaging capability and broad instantaneous frequency coverage and thus exploits the powerful diagnostics available at
radio wavelengths. The potential value of such a facility has been recognized in high-priority recommendations of FASR in two previous decadal surveys conducted by the National Research Council. The 2003
decadal survey of solar and space physics recommended FASR as its highest-priority “small project” 35 in
recognition of the unique and transformative role that it will play in addressing basic research questions
33 NRC, New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 2010, p. 28.
34 D.E. Gary et al., The Frequency-Agile Solar Radiotelescope, white paper submitted to the Decadal Strategy for Solar and Space
Physics (Heliophysics), Paper 86; D.E. Gary et al., Particle Acceleration and Transport on the Sun: New Perspectives at Radio Wavelengths, white paper submitted to the Decadal Strategy for Solar and Space Physics (Heliophysics), Paper 87.
35 NRC, The Sun to the Earth—and Beyond: A Decadal Research Strategy in Solar and Space Physics, 2003, p. 54.