Journal
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL LETTERS
Volume 936, Issue 2, Pages -Publisher
IOP Publishing Ltd
DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ac8104
Keywords
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Categories
Funding
- Italian Space Agency (ASI) [2018-30-HH.0]
- NASA Parker Solar Probe [SV4-84017]
- NSF EPSCoR RII-Track-1 [OIA-1655280]
- NASA IMAP [SUB000313/80GSFC19C0027]
- SNSA [86/20, 145/18]
- European Union
- European Union or the European Research Council [101039844]
- STFC Ernest Rutherford fellowship [ST/R003246/1]
- CNES through the MEDOC data and operations center
- Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO) [4000134474, 4000136424]
- ASI
- Belgian Federal Science Policy Office [4000134474, 4000134088, 4000112292, 4000117262]
- Centre National dEtudes Spatiales (CNES)
- UK Space Agency (UKSA)
- Bundesministerium fur Wirtschaft und Energie (BMWi) through Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft-und Raumfahrt (DLR)
- Swiss Space Office (SSO)
- European Research Council (ERC) [101039844] Funding Source: European Research Council (ERC)
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This study presents the first evidence of switchbacks in the solar corona using observations from the Metis coronagraph on Solar Orbiter. It suggests that interchange reconnection may be the origin of switchbacks, and the initiation of switchbacks could also indicate the origin of slow solar wind.
Switchbacks are sudden, large radial deflections of the solar wind magnetic field, widely revealed in interplanetary space by the Parker Solar Probe. The switchbacks' formation mechanism and sources are still unresolved, although candidate mechanisms include Alfvenic turbulence, shear-driven Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities, interchange reconnection, and geometrical effects related to the Parker spiral. This Letter presents observations from the Metis coronagraph on board a Solar Orbiter of a single large propagating S-shaped vortex, interpreted as the first evidence of a switchback in the solar corona. It originated above an active region with the related loop system bounded by open-field regions to the east and west. Observations, modeling, and theory provide strong arguments in favor of the interchange reconnection origin of switchbacks. Metis measurements suggest that the initiation of the switchback may also be an indicator of the origin of slow solar wind.
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