Duration: 36 months
Energetic particle radiation is produced everywhere in the Universe but the details of the processes driving particle acceleration have not yet been unveiled. The heliosphere is a natural laboratory to investigate these processes in situ or with extreme proximity. After a Solar flare, strong non-thermal electromagnetic radiation (X-ray and type III radio bursts), due to the interaction of electrons accelerated at the Sun with the surrounding medium, is often observed. A deeper understanding of the properties of these emissions, their mutual connections, and their link with the processes of particle acceleration and propagation is the main target of this project. Thanks to its unique payload of 10 instruments, the ESA Solar Orbiter (SO) mission provides a privileged view on such phenomena. SO is, indeed, the only spacecraft currently allowing simultaneous measurements of X-ray, radio spectrograms and electron spectra. This together with the close approach to the Sun, will allow us to increase the sample of analyzed flare events with respect to previous studies thus providing more statistically robust results. The combination of radio measurements from SO with data from other spacecraft currently orbiting in the interplanetary space, and a novel approach for the identification of type IIIs from radio spectrograms, will allow a deeper characterization of radio bursts over the last 30 years. Human volunteers will be involved in the visual identification of Type IIIs allowing for the detection of less intense and complex bursts which are usually very difficult to identify with automatic tools. This approach will enable a comprehensive investigation of the link with flare intensity throughout the Solar cycle. As by-product of this project, two databases, including the characteristics of the emissions and particle data from SO and the type III bursts over about 30 years from several spacecraft, will be make available for the scientific community.
