Using Parker Solar Probe data, an international team found a hidden pattern in the solar wind’s turbulence, ScienceDaily reports. The study was published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
- Looking outward from the Sun, magnetic fields at large scales tend to rotate counterclockwise. At very small scales they switch to clockwise.
- The flip happens right where the plasma stops acting like a flowing fluid and starts acting like individual particles.
- The reversal gets stronger, and moves to longer wavelengths, the farther the solar wind gets from the Sun.
- It’s the first direct observation of this kind of reversal in space turbulence. Researchers from TU Braunschweig, the University of Tokyo and others in ten countries worked on it.
My take
Better turbulence models mean better space-weather forecasts, and that matters to anyone running satellites, power grids or radio. I also love finding order in something that looks like pure chaos. “The heavens declare the glory of God.”
God Bless, and May the Source Be with You!
