Research Highlight |
Featured
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Article |
A laboratory model for the Parker spiral and magnetized stellar winds
The Parker spiral—arising from the interaction between the Sun’s magnetic field with the solar wind—is recreated in the laboratory from a rapidly rotating plasma magnetosphere.
- Ethan E. Peterson
- , Douglass A. Endrizzi
- & Cary B. Forest
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Letter |
Alfvén wave dissipation in the solar chromosphere
The first observational evidence of plasma heating through the dissipation of Alfvén-wave energy in tenuous regions of solar magnetism provides fresh insight into heating processes in the solar atmosphere, and in other magnetohydrodynamic systems.
- Samuel D. T. Grant
- , David B. Jess
- & Rebecca L. Hewitt
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Correspondence |
Reply to 'The dynamics of Van Allen belts revisited'
- I. R. Mann
- , L. G. Ozeke
- & F. Honary
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Correspondence |
The dynamics of Van Allen belts revisited
- Yuri Y. Shprits
- , Richard B. Horne
- & Alexander Y. Drozdov
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News & Views |
When the tail wags the dog
Solar eruptions are triggered by magnetic stress building up in the corona due to the motion of the Sun's dense surface. New observations reveal that these eruptions can, in turn, induce the rotational motion of sunspots.
- Guillaume Aulanier
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Letter |
Magnetic reconnection between a solar filament and nearby coronal loops
Observing magnetic reconnection directly is generally difficult, but looking at the reconnection between erupting solar filaments and nearby coronal loops uncovers many fine details with unprecedented clarity.
- Leping Li
- , Jun Zhang
- & Duncan Mackay
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News & Views |
Reconnecting with two good friends
Two observational studies published in Nature Physics provided early evidence for the mechanisms of magnetic reconnection in three dimensions and in a turbulent medium.
- Ellen Zweibel
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Letter |
Solar coronal magnetic fields derived using seismology techniques applied to omnipresent sunspot waves
Sunspots are transient cool regions on the Sun’s photosphere where concentrated magnetic field lines suppress convection. It turns out that sunspot oscillations can map the coronal magnetic field strength with high resolution.
- David B. Jess
- , Veronika E. Reznikova
- & Conor Diamond
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Commentary |
Magnetic reconnection
A new NASA mission will reveal the electron-scale physics of magnetic reconnection, a process that connects our planet to the rest of the Universe.
- Thomas Earle Moore
- , James L. Burch
- & Roy B. Torbert
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News & Views |
Making waves
High-cadence images link the phenomena required for particle acceleration at the Sun. A plasmoid-driven shock wave accelerates electrons in intermittent bursts.
- Edward W. Cliver
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Article |
Quasiperiodic acceleration of electrons by a plasmoid-driven shock in the solar atmosphere
A combination of measurements from the Solar Dynamics Observatory and radiospectroscopy data from the Nançay Radioheliograph now details the mechanism that connects coronal mass ejections from the sun and the acceleration of particles to relativistic speeds. A spatial and temporal correlation between a coronal ‘bright front’ and radio emissions associated with electron acceleration demonstrates the fundamental relationship between the two.
- Eoin P. Carley
- , David M. Long
- & Peter T. Gallagher
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Article |
Super-elastic collision of large-scale magnetized plasmoids in the heliosphere
A super-elastic collision is one that results in an increase of kinetic energy in the colliding system. A probable occurrence of such a collision is shown in the huge, magnetized plasmas of two coronal mass ejections from the Sun.
- Chenglong Shen
- , Yuming Wang
- & Zhenjun Zhou
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News & Views |
The birth of a solar eruption
A sophisticated model of the birth and early evolution of coronal mass ejections could lead to better forecast of the 'weather' in space.
- Stefaan Poedts
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Article |
Explaining fast ejections of plasma and exotic X-ray emission from the solar corona
Sudden bursts of charged particles emitted from the surface of the Sun can disrupt the satellites orbiting Earth. However, the mechanisms that drive these so-called coronal mass ejections remain unclear. An advanced computer model now establishes a link between the onset of an ejection and the emergence of magnetic flux into the solar atmosphere.
- Ilia I. Roussev
- , Klaus Galsgaard
- & Jun Lin
In the shadow of the Sun
Magnetic dance