‘How is energy from the lower solar atmosphere transferred to, and dissipated in, the corona?’
While the answers to these questions require detailed in-situ observations of the plasma and magnetic field in the inner corona, the imaging observations by WISPR can provide essential information to assist the interpretation of the in-situ data. There is the possibility that small-scale reconnection heats and accelerates the solar wind. If such reconnection is an important contributor to solar wind heating, then in-situ evidence of such events, such as abrupt velocity and magnetic field changes (Gosling et al. 2007) and energetic particles should be quite common. However, tracing their origins (lower atmosphere or the outer corona) using extreme ultraviolet (EUV) or white light imagers on distant platforms (such as SDO or Solar Orbiter) will be difficult due to the small spatial scales involved. By providing high resolution and high dynamic range imaging on the ram-side, WISPR will observe the intermittent solar wind, which is intercepted later by the SPP in-situ instruments. Subsequent joint in-situ/imaging analysis on the ground will clarify which, if any, of the observed outflow structures are results of reconnection. The WISPR images can then be compared to coronagraph and EUV imaging from other spacecraft to allow tracing of such features lower in the solar atmosphere.