Sun’s Snake-Like Magnetic Fields Could Potentially Help Answer Puzzling Coronal Heating Problem

Scientists are baffled at how the Sun's outer atmosphere - the corona - is hotter than the layers below it. However, a new study suggests they are close to finding the answer to this lingering solar mystery.

Sun's Snake-Like Magnetic Field Could Help Address Solar Mystery

A worldwide team of scientists analyzed the Sun's magnetic field in unprecedented detail using the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST), the most potent solar telescope on Earth. DKIST is located in Hawaii. They discovered intricate energy patterns, resembling snakes, in the magnetic field of the Sun's lowest atmosphere, the chromosphere, which might be supplying energy to our star's outer layers of atmosphere.

Sunspots are enormous dark areas on the Sun's face that are extremely magnetic and pass energy among the star's outer layers. They have been the focus of previous efforts to tackle the coronal heating problem. Instead of focusing on sunspots, the team focused on the Sun's less active areas for the new study.

Convective cells known as granules blanket these quiet regions of the photosphere, home to weaker magnetic fields but more active than those seen around sunspots. The study team discovered a more complex underlying structure for the first time, with the orientation of these magnetic fields demonstrating a serpentine variation. Previous findings have shown that these magnetic fields are arranged in small loops.

According to research co-investigator Michail Mathioudakis of Queen's, the more intricate the small-scale variations in magnetic-field direction, the more likely it is that energy is being released through a process known as magnetic reconnection, in which two magnetic fields pointing in opposite directions interact and release energy that contributes to atmospheric heating.

The most complicated magnetic field orientations ever observed at the tiniest scales have been revealed by the most potent solar optical telescope in the world, Mathioudakis continued. This advances the experts' understanding of one of the most challenging problems in solar science.

According to University of Sheffield professor and research co-investigator Robertus Erdelyi, this study may get them closer to understanding the Sun - our life-giving star.

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NOAA Warns About Powerful X-Flares

Strong X-class solar flares are more likely to occur because several active sunspots are stirring up the Sun's surface. Powerful solar flares like X-flares are increasingly common as the Sun gets closer to its solar maximum, which happens at the end of its 11-year solar cycle. The Sun's most intense cycle phase will begin since the anticipated solar maximum is expected in 2025.

NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center previously warned that there is a 15% risk of X-flares and a 40% likelihood of M-flares. There was a 5% possibility of X-class flares.

Per Daniel Brown, who teaches astronomy and scientific communication at Nottingham Trent University, a flare is a major release of energy from the Sun, specifically from an active region or solar spot.

Magnetic field lines twist and store energy, eventually leading to their snapping and realigning, which generates this. Significant amounts of material and electromagnetic radiation are released as a result.

Such X-class flares, he continued, can cause prolonged radiation storms that can damage satellites. Additionally, there is a chance that passengers on aircraft traveling close to the poles could have very low radiation exposures.

Although there may be broad blackouts and transmission problems due to solar flares, they would only affect specific communication channels, such as shortwave radio.