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Interchange reconnection as the source of the fast solar wind within coronal holes

The fast solar wind that fills the heliosphere originates from deep within regions of open magnetic field on the Sun called ‘coronal holes’. The energy source responsible for accelerating the plasma is widely debated; however, there is evidence that it is ultimately magnetic in nature, with candidat...

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Autores principales: Bale, S. D., Drake, J. F., McManus, M. D., Desai, M. I., Badman, S. T., Larson, D. E., Swisdak, M., Horbury, T. S., Raouafi, N. E., Phan, T., Velli, M., McComas, D. J., Cohen, C. M. S., Mitchell, D., Panasenco, O., Kasper, J. C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10247371/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37286648
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05955-3
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author Bale, S. D.
Drake, J. F.
McManus, M. D.
Desai, M. I.
Badman, S. T.
Larson, D. E.
Swisdak, M.
Horbury, T. S.
Raouafi, N. E.
Phan, T.
Velli, M.
McComas, D. J.
Cohen, C. M. S.
Mitchell, D.
Panasenco, O.
Kasper, J. C.
author_facet Bale, S. D.
Drake, J. F.
McManus, M. D.
Desai, M. I.
Badman, S. T.
Larson, D. E.
Swisdak, M.
Horbury, T. S.
Raouafi, N. E.
Phan, T.
Velli, M.
McComas, D. J.
Cohen, C. M. S.
Mitchell, D.
Panasenco, O.
Kasper, J. C.
author_sort Bale, S. D.
collection PubMed
description The fast solar wind that fills the heliosphere originates from deep within regions of open magnetic field on the Sun called ‘coronal holes’. The energy source responsible for accelerating the plasma is widely debated; however, there is evidence that it is ultimately magnetic in nature, with candidate mechanisms including wave heating(1,2) and interchange reconnection(3–5). The coronal magnetic field near the solar surface is structured on scales associated with ‘supergranulation’ convection cells, whereby descending flows create intense fields. The energy density in these ‘network’ magnetic field bundles is a candidate energy source for the wind. Here we report measurements of fast solar wind streams from the Parker Solar Probe (PSP) spacecraft(6) that provide strong evidence for the interchange reconnection mechanism. We show that the supergranulation structure at the coronal base remains imprinted in the near-Sun solar wind, resulting in asymmetric patches of magnetic ‘switchbacks’(7,8) and bursty wind streams with power-law-like energetic ion spectra to beyond 100 keV. Computer simulations of interchange reconnection support key features of the observations, including the ion spectra. Important characteristics of interchange reconnection in the low corona are inferred from the data, including that the reconnection is collisionless and that the energy release rate is sufficient to power the fast wind. In this scenario, magnetic reconnection is continuous and the wind is driven by both the resulting plasma pressure and the radial Alfvénic flow bursts.
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spelling pubmed-102473712023-06-09 Interchange reconnection as the source of the fast solar wind within coronal holes Bale, S. D. Drake, J. F. McManus, M. D. Desai, M. I. Badman, S. T. Larson, D. E. Swisdak, M. Horbury, T. S. Raouafi, N. E. Phan, T. Velli, M. McComas, D. J. Cohen, C. M. S. Mitchell, D. Panasenco, O. Kasper, J. C. Nature Article The fast solar wind that fills the heliosphere originates from deep within regions of open magnetic field on the Sun called ‘coronal holes’. The energy source responsible for accelerating the plasma is widely debated; however, there is evidence that it is ultimately magnetic in nature, with candidate mechanisms including wave heating(1,2) and interchange reconnection(3–5). The coronal magnetic field near the solar surface is structured on scales associated with ‘supergranulation’ convection cells, whereby descending flows create intense fields. The energy density in these ‘network’ magnetic field bundles is a candidate energy source for the wind. Here we report measurements of fast solar wind streams from the Parker Solar Probe (PSP) spacecraft(6) that provide strong evidence for the interchange reconnection mechanism. We show that the supergranulation structure at the coronal base remains imprinted in the near-Sun solar wind, resulting in asymmetric patches of magnetic ‘switchbacks’(7,8) and bursty wind streams with power-law-like energetic ion spectra to beyond 100 keV. Computer simulations of interchange reconnection support key features of the observations, including the ion spectra. Important characteristics of interchange reconnection in the low corona are inferred from the data, including that the reconnection is collisionless and that the energy release rate is sufficient to power the fast wind. In this scenario, magnetic reconnection is continuous and the wind is driven by both the resulting plasma pressure and the radial Alfvénic flow bursts. Nature Publishing Group UK 2023-06-07 2023 /pmc/articles/PMC10247371/ /pubmed/37286648 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05955-3 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
Bale, S. D.
Drake, J. F.
McManus, M. D.
Desai, M. I.
Badman, S. T.
Larson, D. E.
Swisdak, M.
Horbury, T. S.
Raouafi, N. E.
Phan, T.
Velli, M.
McComas, D. J.
Cohen, C. M. S.
Mitchell, D.
Panasenco, O.
Kasper, J. C.
Interchange reconnection as the source of the fast solar wind within coronal holes
title Interchange reconnection as the source of the fast solar wind within coronal holes
title_full Interchange reconnection as the source of the fast solar wind within coronal holes
title_fullStr Interchange reconnection as the source of the fast solar wind within coronal holes
title_full_unstemmed Interchange reconnection as the source of the fast solar wind within coronal holes
title_short Interchange reconnection as the source of the fast solar wind within coronal holes
title_sort interchange reconnection as the source of the fast solar wind within coronal holes
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10247371/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37286648
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05955-3
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