Solar Orbiter traces magnetic switchbacks in solar wind back to their origin on the Sun
The European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter flew through a large S-shaped magnetic kink, or switchback, in the solar wind and identified its source at the Sun's surface, according to ESA and the paper's lead author, Jesse Coburn of CNRS/LPP. The team found charged oxygen and carbon particles that could only have formed in hot magnetic loops at the Sun's surface, which the authors call the signature of interchange reconnection.
Bottom line — ESA's Daniel Müller says the findings could help predict solar storms and protect space infrastructure, though the mechanism behind switchbacks is not yet fully settled.
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Two competing theories exist: interchange reconnection near the Sun's surface, which the new particle data supports, and processes involving waves and turbulence, which the researchers say operate after the switchback has left the Sun.
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Solar Orbiter was roughly halfway between Earth and the Sun at the time, and the team combined its Solar Wind Analyser data with images and models built from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.
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A separate Mirage News and Phys.org write-up of the ESA release carries the same findings, while a companion paper in The Astrophysical Journal Letters describes solar energetic particle flux deflections that may point to magnetic flux tubes as a prevalent solar wind structure.
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Wikipedia's entry notes that switchbacks were first observed by the NASA-ESA Ulysses mission in the 1990s and that the open-versus-closed field interaction theory predates Solar Orbiter's 2022 observations.
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The Register and ESA both link the work to space weather forecasting, with ESA's Müller arguing that better understanding of the solar wind helps protect satellites and other space technology.