{"id":9616,"date":"2025-06-03T14:58:06","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T18:58:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/?p=9616"},"modified":"2025-06-03T14:58:06","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T18:58:06","slug":"swri-led-research-finds-particles-energized-by-magnetic-reconnection-in-the-nascent-solar-wind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/?p=9616","title":{"rendered":"SwRI-Led Research Finds Particles Energized by Magnetic Reconnection in the Nascent Solar Wind"},"content":{"rendered":"

Research offers insights into processes that heat the solar atmosphere and accelerate the solar wind<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Magnetic Connection near Sun by JHUAPL An SwRI-led study identified particles accelerated to extremely high energies by magnetic reconnection near the Sun. As NASA\u2019s Parker Solar Probe (trajectory shown in green) crossed the heliospheric current sheet, it encountered merging magnetic islands (blues) and protons accelerated toward the Sun, establishing reconnection as their source, distinct from unrelated solar processes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

New research<\/a> led by a Southwest Research Institute scientist identified a new source of energetic particles near the Sun. These definitive observations were made by instruments aboard NASA\u2019s Parker Solar Probe, which detected the powerful phenomena as the spacecraft dipped in and out of the solar corona.<\/p>\n

These new results offer fresh perspectives on how magnetic reconnection could heat the solar atmosphere, which then transitions into the solar wind, and also how solar flares accelerate a small fraction of charged particles to near-relativistic speeds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough the SwRI-led Magnetospheric Multiscale mission, scientists made the first direct detection of the source of magnetic reconnection near Earth, observing how this explosive physical process converts stored magnetic energy into kinetic energy and heat,\u201d said SwRI\u2019s Dr. Mihir Desai, lead author of a new paper about this research. \u201cNow Parker has made direct observations of how magnetic reconnection at the heliospheric current sheet (HCS), where the interplanetary field reverses its polarity, energizes charged particles to extremely high energies.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Parker crossed the HCS, scientists discovered a sunward-directed reconnection jet and sunward-propagating highly energetic protons, establishing their origin from HCS reconnection sites and not from unrelated processes at the Sun. Within the core of the reconnection exhaust, Parker detected trapped energetic protons a thousand times greater than the available magnetic energy per particle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese findings indicate that magnetic reconnection in the HCS is an important source of energetic particles in the near-Sun solar wind,\u201d Desai said. \u201cEverywhere there are magnetic fields there will be magnetic reconnection. But the Sun\u2019s magnetic fields are much stronger near the star, so there\u2019s a lot more stored energy to be released.\u201d<\/p>\n

Magnetic reconnection \u2014 when magnetic field lines converge, break apart and reconnect in an explosive physical process \u2014 energizes particles and generates high-speed flows. At the heart of space weather, reconnection is responsible for powerful solar events, such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs), and drives disturbances in Earth\u2019s space environment. Such disturbances produce spectacular auroras but can also shut down electrical power grids and disrupt satellite-based communication and navigation systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cReports from the American Meteorological Society indicated that the powerful solar events in May 2024 wreaked havoc with farmers when extreme geomagnetic storms disrupted the precise GPS-guided navigation systems used to plant, fertilize and harvest rows of seeds, causing an estimated loss of up to $500 million in earning potential,\u201d Desai said. \u201cParker\u2019s access to this new data is critical, particularly as we remain in the midst of a very active solar cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parker was able to make these measurements due to its record-breaking proximity to the Sun, flying through its corona up to three times a year. Of particular interest is understanding how the Sun\u2019s atmosphere heats up and accelerates the solar wind. Understanding these processes can also help scientists develop ways to predict and mitigate the effects of solar flares and CMEs, as well as provide new insights for laboratory fusion research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Research offers insights into processes that heat the solar atmosphere and accelerate the solar wind New research led by a Southwest Research Institute scientist identified a new source of energetic particles near the Sun. These definitive observations were made by instruments aboard NASA\u2019s Parker Solar Probe, which detected the powerful phenomena as the spacecraft dipped…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":9617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.swri.org\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/paragraphs_responsive_image_style\/public\/magnetic-reconnection-00-01-00-14-still002.png?itok=QK2iyvm5","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[216],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-discovery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9616"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9618,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9616\/revisions\/9618"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}