2023-06-08 12:15:21
A long and careful analysis of observations made by the Parker Solar Probe as it flew past the Sun has identified the fine structure of the solar wind near where it is generated on the Sun’s surface, revealing details that are lost when the wind leaves the solar corona. as a uniform burst of charged particles.
Parker left Earth in 2018 and has been orbiting the Sun, making close approaches to it, making observations that would otherwise have been impossible.
The team led by Stuart D. Bale, from the University of California at Berkeley, and James Drake, from the University of Maryland, both institutions in the United States, has recognized in the observations made by Parker, streams of high-energy particles that coincide with the supergranulation flows inside the coronal holes, suggesting that these are the regions where the so-called “fast” solar wind originates.
Coronal holes are areas where magnetic field lines emerge from the surface without looping inward, thus forming open field lines that expand outward and fill most of the space around the Sun. Coronal holes typically be at the poles during the lulls of the Sun, so the fast solar wind they generate does not hit Earth. But when the Sun enters its peak phase every 11 years, as its magnetic field reverses, these holes appear all over the surface, generating gusts of solar wind that point directly at Earth.
Artist’s impression of Parker approaching the Sun. (Image: NASA)
Understanding how and where the solar wind originates will help predict solar storms that, while producing beautiful auroras on Earth, can also cause damage to satellites and even some infrastructure on the Earth’s surface, such as power grids. electric.
The study carried out by Bale and his colleagues is titled “Interchange reconnection as the source of the fast solar wind within coronal holes”. And it has been published in the academic journal Nature. (Fountain: NCYT de Amazings)
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