Solar Ring Mission: Building a Panorama of the Sun and Inner-heliosphere
Yuming Wang, Xianyong Bai, Changyong Chen, Linjie Chen, Xin Cheng, Lei Deng, Linhua Deng, Yuanyong Deng, Li Feng, Tingyu Gou, Jingnan Guo, Yang Guo, Xinjun Hao, Jiansen He, Junfeng Hou, Huang Jiangjiang, Zhenghua Huang, Haisheng Ji, Chaowei Jiang, Jie Jiang, Chunlan Jin, Xiaolei Li, Yiren Li, Jiajia Liu, Kai Liu, Liu Liu, Rui Liu, Rui Liu, Chengbo Qiu, Chenglong Shen, Fang Shen, Yuandeng Shen, Xiangjun Shi, Jiangtao Su, Yang Su, Yingna Su, Mingzhe Sun, Baolin Tan, Hui Tian, Yamin Wang, Lidong Xia, Jinglan Xie, Ming Xiong, Mengjiao Xu, Xiaoli Yan, Yihua Yan, Shangbin Yang, Shuhong Yang, Shenyi Zhang, Quanhao Zhang, Yonghe Zhang, Jinsong Zhao, Guiping Zhou, Hong Zou
Abstract
Solar Ring (SOR) is a proposed space science mission to monitor and study the Sun and inner heliosphere from a full 360° perspective in the ecliptic plane. It will deploy three 120°-separated spacecraft on the 1-AU orbit. The first spacecraft, S1, locates 30° upstream of the Earth, the second, S2, 90° downstream, and the third, S3, completes the configuration. This design with necessary science instruments, e.g., the Doppler-velocity and vector magnetic field imager, wide-angle coronagraph, and in-situ instruments, will allow us to establish many unprecedented capabilities: (1) provide simultaneous Doppler-velocity observations of the whole solar surface to understand the deep interior, (2) provide vector magnetograms of the whole photosphere - the inner boundary of the solar atmosphere and heliosphere, (3) provide the information of the whole lifetime evolution of solar featured structures, and (4) provide the whole view of solar transients and space weather in the inner heliosphere. With these capabilities, Solar Ring mission aims to address outstanding questions about the origin of solar cycle, the origin of solar eruptions and the origin of extreme space weather events. The successful accomplishment of the mission will construct a panorama of the Sun and inner-heliosphere, and therefore advance our understanding of the star and the space environment that holds our life.