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Magnetic Pulses

7 August 2019
Electromagnetism

Scientists have discovered previously undetected observational evidence of frequent energetic pulses transporting energy from the solar surface to the higher solar atmosphere. Magnetic plasma waves or pulses have long been suggested as one of the big mechanisms in order to explain why the temperature of the solar atmosphere rises quickly, from thousands to millions of degrees. These are short lived Alfven pulses which seem to be generated by photospheric plasma swirls. They are said to be at least as many as 150,000 of them in the solar photosphere at any given point in time. Swirling motion is common in the universe, from sinking water in a domestic tap and sink to tornadoes and solar jets, and even spiral galaxies. The research is continuing – see https://phys.org/news/2019-08-magnetic-plasma-pulses-uk-size-swirls.html and https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-11495-0

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