The Coronal Solar Magnetism Observatory: Synoptic Solar Observations to Address the Space Weather Challenge

Space-weather forecast capability is held back by our current lack of basic scientific understanding of Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) magnetic evolution and the coronal magnetism that structures and drives the solar wind. Comprehensive observations of the global magnetothermal environment of the solar atmosphere are needed for progress. The Coronal Solar Magnetism Observatory (COSMO) is a suite of ground-based synoptic solar telescopes that will provide the community with comprehensive and simultaneous measurements of magnetism, temperature, density, plasma flows and waves from the photosphere through the chromosphere and out into the corona. In this talk we will describe the COSMO instruments and discuss how the observations they provide will uniquely address a set of science objectives that are central to addressing the Space Weather challenge: in particular, to understand the storage and release of magnetic energy, to understand CME dynamics and consequences for shocks, to determine the role of waves in solar atmospheric heating and solar wind acceleration, to understand how the coronal magnetic field relates to the solar dynamo, and to constrain and improve space-weather forecast models.