HR: 16:15h
AN: SH54A-02    [Abstracts]
TI: The Reconnection and Microscale (RAM) Mission in the LWS Context
AU: * Golub, L
EM: golub@cfa.harvard.edu
AF: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street MS58, Cambridge, MA 02138 United States
AU: DeLuca, E
EM: deluca@cfa.harvard.edu
AF: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street MS58, Cambridge, MA 02138 United States
AB: Hot magnetized plasmas are ubiquitous throughout the universe. The physics governing the dynamics of such plasmas takes place on remarkably small spatial and temporal scales, while both the cause of and the response to this activity occur on large spatial scales. Understanding the dynamics, energetics, and coupling between magnetic fields and plasmas are key focal points of research in astro-, space, and solar physics. Studying the Sun provides unique opportunities to examine these processes with unprecedented detail and scope unattainable for more remote objects. Few problems have proved as resistant to solution as the production of high-energy particles in hot magnetized plasmas. Theory and observations indicate that both magnetic reconnection and shocks can accelerate particles to high energies, involving small-scale structures that ultimately affect a much larger volume. Reconnection has been invoked to explain a wide range of explosive solar activity, from surges to coronal mass ejections, requiring the creation and dissipation of fine-scale currents. The Reconnection and Microscale (RAM) Mission is focused on understanding these key processes on the Sun, with particular emphasis on the production of high-energy particles and radiation. RAM obtains imaging and spectroscopic data with unprecedented resolution, and distinguishes among proposed energy-release and particle-acceleration mechanisms by determining the fine-scale structure of heated and cooling threads, and by observing the detailed evolution of multithermal plasmas using high-cadence spectroscopic imaging with broad temperature coverage. Lessons learned will also be applicable to both laboratory and non-solar magnetoplasmas, from the magnetosphere to active galaxies.
DE: 2752 MHD waves and instabilities (2149, 6050, 7836)
DE: 7524 Magnetic fields
DE: 7526 Magnetic reconnection (2723, 7835)
DE: 7974 Solar effects
DE: 7984 Space radiation environment
SC: SPA-Solar and Heliospheric Physics [SH]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005