Solar wind streams have origins traceable to coronal holes, which are locations on the Suns outer atmosphere. While its hypothesized that these coronal holes may be the main sources of solar wind, the specific mechanism of how the wind emerges from them is still a mystery. To dive deeper into this phenomenon, Lakshmi Chitta and his group observed a coronal hole utilizing the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument aboard the Solar Orbiter spacecraft. They determined numerous small-scale plasma jets present within this coronal hole.
This motion picture was created from observations taken by the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft on March 30, 2022, in between 04:30 and 04:55 UTC, and was formerly launched last year. Subsequent analysis exposed numerous tiny jets being released during the observation. Credit: ESA & & NASA/Solar Orbiter/EUI Team; acknowledgment: Lakshmi Pradeep Chitta, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research
Qualities of Picoflare Jets
These widespread yet faint jets, just a couple of hundred kilometers throughout, were seen to last in between 20 to 100 seconds, accomplishing speeds of roughly 100 kilometers per second. Their energy seems stemmed from magnetic reconnection. Due to their fairly low kinetic energies, Chitta and his colleagues named these structures picoflare jets. Based on their calculations, they suggest that plasma outflows from these many, frequent picoflare jets, carried along the open electromagnetic field lines of coronal holes, might provide a significant quantity of mass and energy to the solar wind throughout the solar cycle.
Specialist Perspectives
In an associated Perspective, Ignacio Ugarte-Urra and Yi-Ming Wang talk about the research study and its findings in greater detail.
For more on this discovery, see Solar Orbiter Discovers Tiny Jets That Could Power the Solar Wind.
Recommendations:
” Picoflare jets power the solar wind emerging from a coronal hole on the Sun” by L. P. Chitta, A. N. Zhukov, D. Berghmans, H. Peter, S. Parenti, S. Mandal, R. Aznar Cuadrado, U. Schühle, L. Teriaca, F. Auchère, K. Barczynski, É. Buchlin, L. Harra, E. Kraaikamp, D. M. Long, L. Rodriguez, C. Schwanitz, P. J. Smith, C. Verbeeck and D. B. Seaton, 24 August 2023, Science.DOI: 10.1126/ science.ade5801.
” Thin jets underlie the solar wind: Solar Orbiter images reveal widespread magnetic plasma jets at the roots of the solar wind” by Ignacio Ugarte-Urra and Yi-Ming Wang, 24 August 2023, Science.DOI: 10.1126/ science.adj8002.
This mosaic of images shows a multitude of tiny jets of material getting away from the Suns outer environment. The images originate from the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft. They appear as dark streaks throughout the solar surface area in this mosaic. The images are negatives significance that although the jets are displayed as dark, they are bright flashes against the solar surface area. Credit: ESA & & NASA/Solar Orbiter/EUI Team; recommendation: Lakshmi Pradeep Chitta, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Images from the Solar Orbiter revealed small “picoflare” jets within a coronal hole on the Sun, which might provide energy to the solar wind, boosting our understanding of area weather origins.
Severe ultraviolet images of the Sun recorded by the Solar Orbiter spacecraft have actually revealed numerous small jets present within a coronal hole. They propose that these picoflare jets may supply energy and plasma to the solar wind.
Connection to Coronal Holes
The images come from the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft. The images are negatives significance that although the jets are displayed as dark, they are bright flashes versus the solar surface area. Extreme ultraviolet images of the Sun recorded by the Solar Orbiter spacecraft have actually revealed many small-scale jets present within a coronal hole. They propose that these picoflare jets may provide energy and plasma to the solar wind. Based on their calculations, they recommend that plasma outflows from these various, frequent picoflare jets, funnelled along the open magnetic field lines of coronal holes, may supply a significant amount of mass and energy to the solar wind throughout the solar cycle.