AE Seminar
Science Traceability Matrix (STM): my journey from Parker Solar Probe (PSP) to Space Weather Investigation Frontier (SWIFT)
ft.
Mojtaba Akhavan-Tafti
Associate Research Scientist | University of Michigan
Tuesday, February 11
11 am - 12 pm
Guggenheim 442
About the Seminar:
NASA science missions are often complex systems of systems, involving various stakeholders, including the United States’ Congress. To ensure a clear and concise communication of expectations, requirements, and constraints, NASA has adopted the Science Traceability Matrix (STM). STM provides a logical flow from the decadal survey to science goals and objectives, mission and instrument requirements, and data products. STM serves as a summary of what science will be achieved and how it will be achieved, with a clear definition of what mission success will look like. In this seminar, I will present the STM from the Parker Solar Probe (PSP), including requirements relating to the plasma instrument for which I am a co-investigator. I will describe how our team used the STM to map the mission’s top-level requirements to mission success criteria and helped to eliminate any single point of failure that could end the mission prematurely. I will then present my own research on magnetic switchbacks in the PSP magnetic and plasma observations and their role in solar wind acceleration and heating. I will conclude the seminar by discussing how my research on the temporal evolution of switchbacks in the solar wind led to a new STM, and helped to chart a multidisciplinary path to designing a ground-breaking science mission concept, titled Space Weather Investigation Frontier (SWIFT), with the potential to improve space weather forecasting lead times by up to 40%.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Mojtaba Akhavan-Tafti is an associate research scientist at the University of Michigan. His research interests include plasma instabilities in the heliosphere, using observations, simulations, and laboratory experiments. He is the co-investigator and team member of various heliophysics science missions, including the Parker Solar Probe (PSP), the Global Dynamics Constellation (GDC), and the Sun Radio Interferometry Space Experiment (SunRISE) missions. Akhavan-Tafti is also the Principal Investigator of Space Weather Investigation Frontier (SWIFT) mission concept. SWIFT aims to unravel the three-dimensional structure and temporal evolution of mesoscale solar wind structures that drive terrestrial space weather from inside the Sun-Earth Lagrange point L1 (sub-L1), utilizing flight-ready solar sail technology. He teaches multidisciplinary courses on space instrumentation, as well as space systems design and management, involving hands-on projects in collaboration with government and industry stakeholders.