Thursday

Solar Orbiter has been in its cruise phase since June 2020, during which time a significant volume of science data has been accumulated by those payload instruments which make in situ measurements of the electromagnetic field and plasma environment local to the spacecraft. Despite an extended hiatus, lasting from the end of October 2020 until mid-April 2021, these measurements include novel data recorded by the 3 separate sensors which, together with a central DPU, comprise the Solar Wind Analyser (SWA) suite. Between them these sensors, the Electron Analyser System, the Proton-Alpha Sensor and the Heavy Ion Sensor, make high-cadence measurements of 3D velocity distribution functions of solar wind electron, proton and alpha particle populations, together with abundant heavy ions such as O6+ and ion charge states such as Fe9+ or Fe10+. In this presentation we summarise some early results of studies using data from one or more of the 3 SWA sensors, and thus illustrate the quality of the data and their potential uses in achieving the mission science goals. These include the availability of high temporal resolution observations which offer unique possibilities for resolving plasma kinetic processes at small scales in the solar wind itself, as well as observations related to establishing and understanding the links between processes occurring at the Sun and their consequences for the nature of the inner heliosphere and solar wind.