Scientific Synergies and Additional Science

The Synergies and Additional Science Working Group investigates the scientific opportunities enabled by Plasma Observatory beyond the primary science regions with the aim of broadening the scientific impact of the mission through cross-disciplinary synergies. While the Plasma Observatory mission is mainly focused on regions such as the bow shock, magnetosheath, magnetopause, and plasma sheet, the orbital design naturally enables extensive coverage of additional regions. Earlier missions have shown how major discoveries can also be obtained in areas out of baseline science. In this framework, the Working Group complements the scientific team with the identification of relevant physical processes constituting the additional science targets which are not driving payload/mission design. To this purpose, the working group fosters scientific discussion with experts from different fields, such as inner magnetosphere, radiation belts, magnetopause flanks, and solar wind. Plasma Observatory will represent a new vantage point of observation in different near-Earth regions during space weather events. Hence, the working group brings together experts in Space Weather Science in order to investigate synergistic observation strategies. Since Plasma Observatory will be a timely multi-scale mission in coordination with future laboratory experiments, the working group aims at exploring synergies with future laboratory plasma experiments.