About this Research Topic
Apart from Helios and other missions that sampled plasmas close to the Sun in the 80’s - 90’s, space missions capable of distinguishing fine features of the primary ion species and electrons close to the source region of the solar wind have been available only recently, thanks to NASA’s Parker Solar Probe and ESA’s Solar Orbiter missions. Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter have now entered the nominal phase; they are currently offering unprecedented opportunities where the physics at work can be probed in situ near the Sun. To understand the dynamical mechanisms at play, theoretical development and numerical modeling are critical.
Our Research Topic encourages research articles and/or review papers on pioneering observations, theories, and models that contributes to the understanding of kinetic plasma dynamics responsible for the heating and acceleration of the solar wind plasmas. We welcome a wide-range of topics including plasma kinetics, turbulence characterization, wave-particle interactions, non-Maxwellian features of velocity distributions and their evolution, temperature anisotropy, magnetic reconnection, and generation and propagation of the switchbacks.
Synergistic studies using theories, models, observations in the heliospheric environments made by Parker Solar Probe, Solar Orbiter, Magnetospheric Multiscale, as well as other missions are particularly welcome.
We welcome the following article types: Brief Research Report, Original Research, Hypothesis & Theory, Methods, Data Report, Mini Review and Review, General Commentary, Opinion, and Perspective.
Keywords: Kinetic Processes, Heating and Acceleration, Cross-Scale Coupling, Inner Heliosphere, Turbulence, Switchback, Parker Solar Probe, Solar Orbiter
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.