Parker Solar Probe Mission

Parker Solar Probe was launched in August 2018 and is traveling to within 9 solar radii from the Sun's surface - the first spacecraft to fly through the solar corona - to directly sample the solar wind at its birth. With this data, we will be able to investigate the role played by turbulence and other processes in the heating of the corona and generation of the solar wind.

Dr Chen’s research interests are in space plasma physics, in particular the solar wind and the variety of processes that occur within it. Christopher’s research involves the analysis of this data, along with theoretical and computational models, to understand its behaviour and address some of the outstanding problems in plasma astrophysics.