The Solaris Solar Polar Mission

The solar poles are one of the last unexplored regions of the solar system. Although Ulysses flew over the poles in the 1990s, it did not have remote sensing instruments onboard to probe the Sun’s polar magnetic field or surface/sub-surface flows.

We will discuss Solaris, a proposed Solar Polar MIDEX mission to revolutionize our understanding of the Sun by addressing fundamental questions that can only be answered from a polar vantage point. Solaris uses a Jupiter gravity assist to escape the ecliptic plane and fly over both poles of the Sun to >75 deg. inclination, obtaining the first high-latitude, multi-month-long, continuous remote-sensing solar observations. Solaris will address key outstanding, breakthrough problems in solar physics and fill holes in our scientific understanding that will not be addressed by current missions.

With focused science and a simple, elegant mission design, Solaris will also provide enabling observations for space weather research (e.g. polar view of CMEs), and stimulate future research through new unanticipated discoveries.