Solar Orbiter traces a magnetic switchback back to the Sun's corona
On March 2, 2022, ESA's Solar Orbiter flew through a magnetic switchback and used heavy-ion data to show the plasma was heated above one million degrees Celsius in a closed coronal loop near a coronal hole. The Nature Astronomy study is the first to link a switchback to interchange reconnection in the corona.
- Switchback measured about 2.75 million km across, six times the Earth–Moon distance
- Plasma baked above 1 million °C points to the solar corona as its source
- SDO data tied the plasma to a closed loop near a coronal hole
- Particle motion matches Alfvén-wave dynamics along field lines
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