Solar orbiter science

A summary is given of the scientific advances that are expected from the Solar Orbiter. There will be unexpected discoveries from exploring new regions of the Sun for the first time - namely, the polar regions, the inner solar wind and increasing the current special resolution by an order of magnitude. However, it is also likely to make substantial advances or to provide definitive answers to several basic physics questions that are of substantial importance for our understanding of the wider universe. These include: the effect of the Sun on the Earth's climate; the structure of the solar interior and the nature of the solar dynamos; the nature and behaviour of the fundamental magnetic structures of the solar surface; the nature of the transition region; the drivers for the solar wind; and the mechanisms for heating the corona.