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

Chitta, L.P., Zhukov, A.N., Berghmans, D., Peter, H., Parenti, S., Mandal, S., Aznar Cuadrado, R., Schühle, U., Teriaca, L., Auchère, F., Barczynski, K., Buchlin, É., Harra, L., Kraaikamp, E., Long, David M. orcid logoORCID: 0000-0003-3137-0277, Rodriguez, L., Schwanitz, C., Smith, P.J., Verbeeck, C. and Seaton, D.B. (2023) Picoflare jets power the solar wind emerging from a coronal hole on the Sun. Science, 381 (6660). pp. 867-872. ISSN 1095-9203

Abstract
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 100 kilometers, which last 20 to 100 seconds and reach speeds of ~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.
Metadata
Item Type:Article (Published)
Refereed:Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords:Astrophysics; Solar and Stellar Astrophysics; Physics; Plasma Physics; Space Physics
Subjects:Physical Sciences > Astronomy
Physical Sciences > Astronomy > Astrophysics
DCU Faculties and Centres:DCU Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science and Health
DCU Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science and Health > School of Physical Sciences
Publisher:American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Official URL:https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ade580...
Copyright Information:Authors
ID Code:33408
Deposited On:10 Sep 2026 10:33 by David Long . Last Modified 10 Sep 2026 10:33
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