Patches of magnetic switchbacks and their origins

Abstract

Parker Solar Probe (PSP) has shown that the solar wind in the inner heliosphere is characterized by the quasi omni-presence of magnetic switchbacks ("switchback" hereinafter), local backward-bends of magnetic field lines. Switchbacks also tend to come in patches, with a large-scale modulation that appears to have a spatial scale size comparable to supergranulation on the Sun. Here we inspect data from the first ten encounters of PSP focusing on different time intervals when clear switchback patches were observed by PSP. We show that the switchbacks modulation, on a timescale of several hours, seems to be independent of whether PSP is near perihelion, when it rapidly traverses large swaths of longitude remaining at the same heliocentric distance, or near the radial-scan part of its orbit, when PSP hovers over the same longitude on the Sun while rapidly moving radially inwards or outwards. This implies that switchback patches must also have an intrinsically temporal modulation most probably originating at the Sun. Between two consecutive patches, the magnetic field is usually very quiescent with weak fluctuations. We compare various parameters between the quiescent intervals and the switchback intervals. The results show that the quiescent intervals are typically less Alfvénic than switchback intervals, and the magnetic power spectrum is usually shallower in quiescent intervals. We propose that the temporal modulation of switchback patches may be related to the "breathing" of emerging flux that appears in images as the formation of "bubbles" below prominences in the Hinode/SOT observations.

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Cited by in corpus (16)

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• Preferential Proton over Electron heating from coherent structures during the first perihelion of Parker Solar Probe
• Solar Spicules, Filigrees and Solar Wind Switchbacks
• Are Switchback boundaries observed by Parker Solar Probe closed?
• The Temperature, Electron, and Pressure Characteristics of Switchbacks: Parker Solar Probe Observations
• Analytic Model and Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations of Three-dimensional Magnetic Switchbacks
• Tracing magnetic switchbacks to their source: An assessment of solar coronal jets as switchback precursors
• Dominance of 2-Minute Oscillations near the Alfvén Surface
• Solar Wind Structures from the Gaussianity of Magnetic Magnitude
• Switchbacks near Boundaries of Small-scale Magnetic Flux Ropes in the Young Solar Wind from Parker Solar Probe Observations
• Formation of Magnetic Switchbacks via expanding Alfvén Waves
• Solar Alfvenic Pulses and Mesoscale Solar Wind
• Two Types of $1/f$ Range in Solar Wind Turbulence