The Heliophysics Living with a Star Infrastructure (H-LWSIS) program solicits proposals to train and develop the next generation of heliophysicists to address complex crossdiscipline system-wide problems that are central to understanding and modeling the Sun-Solar System connection. This element specifically covers the administration of the Jack Eddy Postdoctoral Fellowship (JEPF) Program over a period of 4 years and the management of the LWS Heliophysics Summer School (HSS). Descriptions of these two infrastructure-building programs are found below. Proposals to this element must address the administration and management of one or both of these programs. One of the great challenges for the LWS science program is to achieve the "systems" science required for enhancing our understanding that leads to predicting the Sun-Solar-System connection, phenomena that span the whole Sun-Earth domain and beyond over many temporal and spatial scales. As such, these two programs are central to the LWS Program.
One factor that has impeded progress in cross-disciplinary research is that the science community and, consequently, traditional Heliophysics Division Research programs, have always been structured according to discipline boundaries (e.g., solar, heliosphere, magnetosphere, ionosphere-thermosphere-mesosphere, and climate). Thus, the types of cross-disciplinary projects that LWS needs most are the ones least likely to be proposed to the traditional NASA Heliophysics basic science research and analysis programs and cross-disciplinary projects are less likely to be supported there.
Central to this challenge is the development of a research community that can cross traditional discipline boundaries and attack the system-wide problems that are central to understanding and modeling the Sun-Solar System connection. Summer schools and post-doctoral fellowships are possible avenues for addressing these development needs and for fostering cross-disciplinary research.
H-LWSIS is a component of the Heliophysics Research Program and proposers interested in this program element should read B.1, the Heliophysics Research Program Overview for Heliophysics-specific requirements. Common requirements for all ROSES elements and proposals are found in the ROSES-2021 Summary of Solicitation and the 2021 NASA Proposer's Guidebook and the order of precedence for proposers is the following: this document takes precedence, followed by B.1, The Heliophysics Research Program Overview, followed by the ROSES Summary of Solicitation and, finally, the Proposer’s Guidebook. Proposers should be familiar with all of these resources.
Deadline: Nov. 10, 2021
The LWS program goals are as follows:
1. Understand how the Sun varies and what drives solar variability.
2. Understand how the Earth and planetary systems respond to dynamic external and internal drivers.
3. Understand how and in what ways dynamic space environments affect human and robotic exploration activities.
To be responsive, proposed investigations must have objectives suitable for one of the four following Focused Science Topics (FSTs). Detailed descriptions of each FST are given in Sections 2-5. The FSTs solicited for proposals this year are as follows:
1) Modeling and Validation of Ionospheric Irregularities and Scintillations (described in Section 2);
2) Understanding and Predicting Radiation Belt Loss in the Coupled Magnetosphere (described in Section 3);
3) The Origin and Consequences of Suprathermal Particles that Seed Solar Energetic Particles (described in Section 4); and
4) Long Term Variability and Predictability of the Sun-Climate System (described in Section 5).