Each Focused Science Team Research abstract can be found here under NNH211ZDA001N, "Understanding the Large-Scale Evolution of the Solar Wind".

This FST primarily addresses two Key Science Goals of the 2013 Decadal Survey: #1 “Determine the origins of the Sun’s activity and predict the variations in the space environment,” and #3 “Determine the interaction of the Sun with the solar system and the interstellar medium.” In addition, it supports several LWS Strategic Science Areas including SSA-I (Origins and Variability of Global Solar Processes), SSA-II (Solar Eruptive and Transient Heliospheric Phenomena), and SSA-III (Acceleration and Transport of Solar Energetic Particles.

The main goals of this FST are to understand (1) the physical processes driving the formation and propagation of solar-wind structures throughout the heliosphere and their variability with the solar cycle and (2) how the solar magnetic field and coronal structure determine the plasma and magnetic-field conditions in the inner heliosphere throughout the solar cycle.

There are a large number of physical processes acting under a variety of conditions, with varying drivers and their associated large time lags. Consequently, a more holistic approach will be necessary to gain an understanding of the heliosphere as a system. Types of investigations include but are not limited to:

• Quantification of the impact of the solar cycle on in situ plasma, magnetic field, and energetic particle observations utilizing long-term measurements;


• Enhanced modeling studies by incorporating diverse observations;


• Combination of multiple instrument measurements into a single “super-instrument” with a homogeneous dataset spanning multiple cycles of observations; and


• Application of AI/ML techniques to connect diverse large data sets and to build empirical models of the heliosphere.

In order to improve the usefulness of the results from this FST, all investigations in this FST must consider data and model uncertainty and how sources of error impact the results.