Picoflare jets power the solar wind emerging from a coronal hole on the Sun

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Chitta, L. P.; Zhukov, A. N.; Berghmans, D.; Peter, H.; Parenti, S.; Mandal, S.; Aznar Cuadrado, R.; Schuehle, U.; Teriaca, L.; Auchere, F.; Barczynski, K.; Buchlin, E.; Harra, L.; Kraaikamp, E.; Long, D. M.; Rodriguez, L.; Schwanitz, C.; Smith, P. J.; Verbeeck, C.; Seaton, D. B.
• 署名单位: Max Planck Society; Lomonosov Moscow State University; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); Sorbonne Universite; Universite Paris Saclay; University of London; University College London; Queens University Belfast; Southwest Research Institute
• 刊物名称: SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0036-8598
• DOI: 10.1126/science.ade5801
• 发表日期: 2023-08-25
• 页码: 867-872
• 关键词: kelvin-helmholtz instabilities; active regions; densities; outflows; plumes; origin; waves; FLOW

摘要

Coronal holes are areas on the Sun with open magnetic field lines. They are a source region of the solar wind, but how the wind emerges from coronal holes is not known. We observed a coronal hole using the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager on the Solar Orbiter spacecraft. We identified jets on scales of a few hundred kilometers, which last 20 to 100 seconds and reach speeds of similar to 100 kilometers per second. The jets are powered by magnetic reconnection and have kinetic energy in the picoflare range. They are intermittent but widespread within the observed coronal hole. We suggest that such picoflare jets could produce enough high-temperature plasma to sustain the solar wind and that the wind emerges from coronal holes as a highly intermittent outflow at small scales.