Scientists have come a step closer to identifying the mysterious origins of the 'slow' solar wind, using data collected during the Solar Orbiter spacecraft's first close journey to the Sun.
Scientists have come a step closer to identifying the mysterious origins of the 'slow' solar wind, using data collected during the Solar Orbiter spacecraft's first close journey to the Sun .
Despite decades of observations, the sources and mechanisms that release, accelerate and transport solar wind plasma away from the Sun and into our solar system are not well understood -- particularly the slow solar wind. Dr Steph Yardley of Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, led the research and explains:"The variability of solar wind streams measured in situ at a spacecraft close to the Sun provide us with a lot of information on their sources, and although past studies have traced the origins of the solar wind, this was done much closer to Earth, by which time this variability is lost.
Meanwhile the closed corona refers to regions of the Sun where its magnetic field lines are closed -- meaning they are connected to the solar surface at both ends. These can be seen as large bright loops that form over magnetically active regions. The combination of heavy ions contained in solar material differs depending on where it has originated from; the hotter, closed versus the cooler, open corona.
"The changes in composition of the heavy ions along with the electrons provide strong evidence that not only is the variability driven by the different source regions, but it is also due to reconnection processes occurring between the closed and open loops in the corona." "This result confirms that Solar Orbiter is able to make robust connections between the solar wind and its source regions on the solar surface. This was a key objective of the mission and opens the way for us to study the solar wind's origin in unprecedented detail."
Professor Christopher Owen, of UCL, said:"The instrument teams spent more than a decade designing, building and preparing their sensors for launch, as well as planning how best to operate them in a coordinated way. So it is highly gratifying to now see the data being put together to reveal which regions of the Sun are driving the slow solar wind and its variability."
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