Small-scale magnetism leads to large-scale solar atmosphere

Due to close-up photos of the sun obtained throughout Photo voltaic Orbiter’s perihelion passage of October 2022, solar physicists have seen how fleeting magnetic fields on the solar floor construct up into the solar ambiance.

The outer solar atmosphere is called the solar corona. It’s termed ‘quiet’ when there’s little considerable solar exercise similar to flares or coronal mass ejections. How the quiet corona reaches a temperature of 1,000,000 °C when the floor is simply at ~6000 °C is a long-running thriller.

Though the motion of magnetic fields has lengthy been suspected, the character of the magnetic processes accountable has by no means been totally understood. These new photos of the quiet sun present how loops of million-degree fuel—which kind the constructing blocks of the solar corona—are related to fleeting 100-km-sized magnetic field patches on the solar surface.

The pictures present the view from two of Photo voltaic Orbiter’s devices. The yellow picture was taken by the Excessive Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) and exhibits clearly the arch-like sizzling loops of plasma that attain up into the solar corona. The speckled picture comes from the Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI), and divulges the magnetic polarity of the solar floor. The purple and blue shaded areas signify patches of north and south magnetic polarities. A transparent correlation will be seen between the small patches of magnetic fields and the coronal loops.

The coronal loops are apparently linked to scattered concentrations of the small-scale magnetic subject concentrations on the floor, usually with mixed-polarity configuration. This advanced association and the temporal evolution of those small magnetic subject patches play a task within the constructing of the million-degree corona.

These observations seize floor magnetic buildings and coronal options at virtually the identical high spatial resolution of ~200 km, permitting the information from the 2 devices to be intently in contrast. With these distinctive knowledge, solar physicists now have a window to research the position of the small-scale magnetic fields within the constructing of solar corona.

Just like the perihelion cross that gave these outcomes, Photo voltaic Orbiter is at the moment getting ready for an additional shut cross of the sun on 7 October 2023. On that day, the spacecraft will get as shut as 43 million km to the sun—i.e., nearer to the sun than the innermost planet Mercury. This permits Photo voltaic Orbiter to view the sun in exact element, revealing the beforehand unseen small-scale processes that seem to drive a lot of the sun’s sizzling ambiance. This permits Photo voltaic Orbiter to view the sun in exact element, revealing the beforehand unseen small-scale processes that seem to drive a lot of the sun’s sizzling atmosphere.