The heliosphere represents a cornerstone astrophysical laboratory where fundamental plasma processes can be investigated in situ. Understanding the origins of heliospheric variability, the mechanisms responsible for particle acceleration and particle transport, and the coupling between the solar wind and the local interstellar medium remains central to both heliophysics and astrophysics.
With its recent deployment to the Earth-Sun L1 point, NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) has begun delivering a new generation of observations aimed at understanding energetic particle acceleration, heliospheric structure, and the interaction between the heliosphere and the local interstellar medium. IMAP’s suite of a interstellar neutral atom detectors, for the first time, bridges the neutral atom intensity spectrum over nearly five orders of magnitude in energy, enabling unprecedented analysis of the heliospheric interaction with the local interstellar medium. Through its dedicated dust instrumentation, IMAP offers new insight into the composition, origin, and transport of interplanetary and interstellar dust grains. When combined with other spacecraft at L1, IMAP’s in situ measurements provide unique opportunities for coordinated studies of the mesoscale structure of the ambient solar wind, shocks, energetic particle events, and solar transients.
This session welcomes contributions spanning heliophysics and astrophysics, including theory, numerical modelling, and analyses of observations from current and past missions. Topics of interest include particle acceleration and particle transport from 1 au to the heliopause, the sampling and characterization of interstellar material, heliospheric boundary dynamics, and the coupling between the Sun, heliosphere, and local interstellar medium. We particularly encourage presentations featuring the first scientific results from IMAP, synergistic investigations leveraging the L1 constellation and broader heliophysics fleet, and new insights into the structure and evolution of the heliosphere across multiple spatial and temporal scales.