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2022 Alfvén lecture, Philippe Escoubet

Alfvén Lecture 2022 is given by Philippe Escoubet (European Space Agency), Project Scientist of the Cluster mission.

Cluster satellite and Philippe Escoubet
Image: ESA

Cluster from 20 years of multiprobing the magnetosphere

Speaker: Phillippe Escoubet, ESA/ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands

Lecture hall: D3, Lindstedtsvägen 5, KTH central campus

Date/Time: 13 September 2022 14:00-15:00

Philippe Escoubet presenting Alfvén Lecture
Philippe Escoubet presenting Alfvén Lecture

Abstract

After 22 years in space, the European Space Agency’s Cluster mission studying the near Earth’s environment is continuing to deliver groundbreaking results. These results benefit greatly from the fundamental and pioneering work of Hannes Alfvén on the aurora and on magnetohydrodynamic waves. The main goal of the Cluster mission, made of four identical spacecraft each carrying 11 complementary instruments, is to study in three dimensions the key plasma processes at work in the main regions of the Earth’s environment: solar wind and bow shock, magnetopause, polar cusps, magnetotail, and auroral zone. Cluster uses the ability to move the four spacecraft with respect to each other, according to the science goal to be pursued. Science highlights are presented from the Cluster mission from various places of the Earth’s magnetosphere. Special emphasis is on the Cluster discoveries in the formation of auroras and black auroras. Finally, the upcoming Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE) mission will be presented. This unique mission is dedicated to observing the solar wind - magnetosphere coupling via simultaneous in situ solar wind measurements, soft X-ray imaging of the shocked solar wind, and UV imaging of global auroral distributions.