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Published December 2016 | Published
Journal Article Open

Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun (ISIS): Design of the Energetic Particle Investigation

Abstract

The Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun (ISIS) is a complete science investigation on the Solar Probe Plus (SPP) mission, which flies to within nine solar radii of the Sun's surface. ISIS comprises a two-instrument suite to measure energetic particles over a very broad energy range, as well as coordinated management, science operations, data processing, and scientific analysis. Together, ISIS observations allow us to explore the mechanisms of energetic particles dynamics, including their: (1) Origins—defining the seed populations and physical conditions necessary for energetic particle acceleration; (2) Acceleration—determining the roles of shocks, reconnection, waves, and turbulence in accelerating energetic particles; and (3) Transport—revealing how energetic particles propagate from the corona out into the heliosphere. The two ISIS Energetic Particle Instruments measure lower (EPI-Lo) and higher (EPI-Hi) energy particles. EPI-Lo measures ions and ion composition from ∼20 keV/nucleon–15 MeV total energy and electrons from ∼25–1000 keV. EPI-Hi measures ions from ∼1–200 MeV/nucleon and electrons from ∼0.5–6 MeV. EPI-Lo comprises 80 tiny apertures with fields-of-view (FOVs) that sample over nearly a complete hemisphere, while EPI-Hi combines three telescopes that together provide five large-FOV apertures. ISIS observes continuously inside of 0.25 AU with a high data collection rate and burst data (EPI-Lo) coordinated with the rest of the SPP payload; outside of 0.25 AU, ISIS runs in low-rate science mode whenever feasible to capture as complete a record as possible of the solar energetic particle environment and provide calibration and continuity for measurements closer in to the Sun. The ISIS Science Operations Center plans and executes commanding, receives and analyzes all ISIS data, and coordinates science observations and analyses with the rest of the SPP science investigations. Together, ISIS' unique observations on SPP will enable the discovery, untangling, and understanding of the important physical processes that govern energetic particles in the innermost regions of our heliosphere, for the first time. This paper summarizes the ISIS investigation at the time of the SPP mission Preliminary Design Review in January 2014.

Additional Information

© The Author(s) 2014. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited. Received: 21 February 2014 / Accepted: 16 June 2014. Published online: 5 July 2014. We are deeply indebted to all of the outstanding men and women who have made the Solar Probe Plus Mission and ISIS investigation a reality. These include members of the Solar Probe/Solar Probe Plus Science and Technology Definition Team (STDT), NASA headquarters personnel who have supported and continue to support the mission, project team members at APL and GSFC, instrument team members at a variety of universities and other institutions across the country and around the world, and other members of the community who support this critical mission through their advisory work for the NRC and informally through many other means. We also thank Wendy Mills for the great job she did in assembling and editing this paper for the ISIS Team.

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