BepiColombo and Solar Orbiter coordinated observations: scientific cases and measurements opportunities

<p>BepiColombo and Solar Orbiter are two spacecraft that will be both travelling in the inner heliosphere for 5 years, between the launch of Solar Orbiter (planned in February 2020) and the end of the cruise phase of BepiColombo (2018 - 2025). Both BepiColombo (ESA/JAXA) and Solar Orbiter (ESA/NASA) are carrying exceptional and complementary plasma instrumental payloads and magnetometers. Besides, the remote-sensing instruments on board of Solar Orbiter will provide invaluable information on the state of the Sun, and therefore some contextual information for BepiColombo observations. During the five years to come, BepiColombo will evolve between the Earth and the orbit of Mercury, while Solar Orbiter&#8217;s highly elliptical orbit will cover distances from 1.02 AU to 0.28 AU.&#160; We present here the scientific cases, modelling tools, measurement opportunities and related instruments operations that have been identified in the frame of potential coordinated observations campaign between the spacecraft.</p>