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Large-scale solar ejections are well understood, but the extent to which small-scale solar features directly influence the solar wind remains an open question, primarily due to the challenges of tracing these small-scale ejections and their…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2025-07-18 Jeongwoo Lee , Manolis K. Georgoulis , Rahul Sharma , Nour E. Raouafi , Qin Li , Haimin Wang

Magnetic switchbacks are large amplitude deflections of the magnetic field within the solar wind. They are Alfv\'enic in character and so are associated with a spike in velocity and a generally small variation in local plasma density. Early…

Magnetic switchbacks, or sudden reversals in the magnetic field's radial direction, are one of the more striking observations of Parker Solar Probe (PSP) thus far in its mission. While their precise production mechanisms are still unknown,…

Alfv\'en waves, considered one of the primary candidates for heating and accelerating the fast solar wind, are ubiquitous in spacecraft observations, yet their origin remains elusive. In this study, we analyze data from the first 19…

In the lower solar coronal regions where the magnetic field is dominant, the Alfven speed is much higher than the wind speed. In contrast, the near-Earth solar wind is strongly super-Alfvenic, i.e., the wind speed greatly exceeds the Alfven…

The Alfv\'en surface -- where the solar wind exceeds the local Alfv\'en speed as it expands into interplanetary space -- is now routinely probed by NASA's Parker Solar Probe (PSP) in the near-Sun environment. The size of the Alfv\'en…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2025-10-29 Adam J. Finley

Parker Solar Probe's (PSP) discovery of the prevalence of switchbacks (SBs), localised magnetic deflections in the nascent solar wind, has sparked interest in uncovering their origins. A prominent theory suggests these SBs originate in the…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2024-12-23 Jade Touresse , Etienne Pariat , Clara Froment , Valentin Aslanyan , Peter F. Wyper , Louis Seyfritz

The solar wind is found by Parker Solar Probe (PSP) to be abundant with Alfv\'enic velocity spikes and magnetic field kinks. Temperature enhancement is another remarkable feature associated with the Alfv\'enic spikes. How the prototype of…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2023-01-11 Jiansen He , Xingyu Zhu , Liping Yang , Chuanpeng Hou , Die Duan , Lei Zhang , Ying Wang

We analyze magnetic field data from the first six encounters of PSP, three Helios fast streams and two Ulysses south polar passes covering heliocentric distances $0.1\lesssim R\lesssim 3$ au. We use this data set to statistically determine…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2021-10-13 Anna Tenerani , Nikos Sioulas , Lorenzo Matteini , Olga Panasenco , Chen Shi , Marco Velli

Parker Solar Probe (PSP) entered a region of the sub-Alfvenic solar wind during encounter 8 and we present the first detailed analysis of low-frequency turbulence properties in this novel region. The magnetic field and flow velocity vectors…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2022-02-08 G. P. Zank , L. -L. Zhao , L. Adhikri , D. Telloni , J. C. Kasper , M. Stevens , A. Rahmati , S. D. Bale

Switchbacks (rotations of the magnetic field) are observed on the Parker Solar Probe. Their evolution, content, and plasma effects are studied in this paper. The solar wind does not receive a net acceleration from switchbacks that it…

An outstanding gap in our knowledge of the solar wind is the relationship between switchbacks and solar wind turbulence. Switchbacks are large fluctuations, even reversals, of the background magnetic field embedded in the solar wind flow.…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2024-04-05 Peter Tatum , David Malaspina , Alexandros Chasapis , Benjamin Short

Parker Solar Probe (PSP) has shown that the solar wind in the inner heliosphere is characterized by the quasi omni-presence of magnetic switchbacks ("switchback" hereinafter), local backward-bends of magnetic field lines. Switchbacks also…

The Parker Solar Probe (PSP) mission presents a unique opportunity to study the near-Sun solar wind closer than any previous spacecraft. During its fourth and fifth solar encounters, PSP had the same orbital trajectory, meaning that solar…

Parker Solar Probe (PSP) routinely observes magnetic field deflections in the solar wind at distances less than 0.3 au from the Sun. These deflections are related to structures commonly called 'switchbacks' (SBs), whose origins and…

The Parker Solar Probe (PSP) spacecraft is performing the first in situ exploration of the solar wind within 0.2 au of the Sun. Initial observations confirmed the Alfv\'enic nature of aligned fluctuations of the magnetic field B and…

We analyze \emph{Parker Solar Probe} and \emph{Solar Orbiter} measurements of magnetic-field reversals (``switchbacks'') across the Alfv\'en surface ($M_a\simeq 1$), where $M_a$ is the Alfv\'en Mach number. The reported ``sub-Alfv\'enic…

The origin of large-amplitude magnetic field deflections in the solar wind, known as magnetic switchbacks, is still under debate. These structures, which are ubiquitous in the observations made by Parker Solar Probe, likely have their seed…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2025-01-22 Nina Bizien , Clara Froment , Maria S. Madjarska , Thierry Dudok de Wit , Marco Velli

Turbulence in the solar wind is characterized by Alfv\'enic fluctuations that exhibit spherical polarization, a geometric condition resulting in the nearly constant magnitude of the magnetic field. This property persists even during the…

Plasma Physics · Physics 2026-05-07 Anna Tenerani , Marco Velli

The subject of switchbacks, defined either as large angular deflections or polarity reversals of the magnetic field, has generated substantial interest in the space physics community since the launch of Parker Solar Probe (PSP) in 2018.…