Solar Orbiter and Parker Solar Probe: Multi-viewpoint messengers of the inner heliosphere

Abstract

NASA's Parker Solar Probe and ESA/NASA's Solar Orbiter are encounter missions that are currently both in their nominal science phases, venturing closer to the Sun than ever before. These complementary spacecraft are operating together in order to combine in situ measurements of solar wind plasma in the inner heliosphere with high-resolution remote sensing observations of their source regions in the solar atmosphere. This paper highlights the synergetic science that these multi-viewpoint messengers of the inner heliosphere enable and how they are working together to significantly advance our understanding of the physical processes that are important for solar wind formation, the eruption of coronal mass ejections and their space weather effects.