About our project in short…
Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) have been intensively studied for several decades. More attention is given to the large energetic CMEs, as they may produce strong effects on Earth. CMEs are studied in both remote sensing and in-situ observations. On the Sun, images from telescopes on board different missions show CMEs that occur on all scales, including jets and mini-CMEs (seen in extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) and X-rays) and narrow-CMEs (in white-light images). The sources of the latter CMEs are believed to be small-scale magnetic flux ropes (SMFRs). Mini-filaments are the presumed observable proxy of these flux ropes. The energetics of the eruption of these SMFRs and their ability to escape into the heliosphere are poorly understood. The present fleet of space missions including Parker Solar Probe (PSP), Solar Orbiter, Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), and Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) together with numerous ground-based observatories gives us an unprecedented opportunity to obtain a long-overdue understanding of the eruption and propagation of SMFRs in the solar corona and the heliosphere. We will use the advantage of the closer-than-ever orbits of the PSP and the ability of the Wide Field Imager (WISPR) telescope on board PSP to image the upper corona in unprecedented detail together with observations from the EUV imager and METIS coronagraph on board Solar Orbiter. The proposed team will combine observational and theoretical expertise to study SMFRs from their formation, eruption and evolution in the solar corona and into interplanetary medium employing multi-instrument data analysis and various modeling approaches.