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Science nugget: High-resolution imaging of coronal mass ejections from SoloHI

24 May 2023The Solar Orbiter Heliospheric Imager on board the Solar Orbiter spacecraft observes the Sun’s corona and heliosphere in white light. SoloHI is a next-generation imager building upon the successful STEREO-SECCHI pathfinder imagers and SOHO-LASCO. Heliospheric imagers are designed to observe the transient solar wind structures originating at the...

Science nugget: Direct assessment of far-side helioseismology using SO/PHI magnetograms

17 May 2023Helioseismic imaging is a powerful method to detect active regions on the Sun's far side by using observations of the solar acoustic oscillations. Acoustic waves propagate through the solar interior and connect the far side to the visible side of the Sun. Since waves travel faster in magnetised regions, they have the potential to detect active...

Science nugget: Imaging and spectroscopic observations of extreme-ultraviolet brightenings using EUI and SPICE on board Solar Orbiter

26 April 2023The smallest coronal transient extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) brightening events that were observed so far, so-called campfires, were discovered in 2021 using data from the High Resolution Extreme Ultraviolet telescope, which is part of the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager on board the ESA and NASA Solar Orbiter mission. The high spatial and temporal...

Science nugget: Hot X-ray onset observations in solar flares with Solar Orbiter/STIX

19 April 2023STIX observations confirm the hot onset behavior previously reported by Hudson et al. (2021), with elevated temperatures ranging between 11 to 16 MK from the very beginning of the flare. Interestingly, the elevated temperature persists throughout the interval before the main energy release, while the emission measure steadily increases by about...

Science nugget: Multi-scale structure and composition of ICME prominence material from the Solar Wind Analyser suite

12 April 2023Observations of interplanetary prominence material are rare and present unique opportunities to study ICME formation, eruption, internal structure, and evolution. The Solar Wind Analyser instrument suite on Solar Orbiter recorded a short interval of prominence plasma during a series of ICMEs that passed over the spacecraft during late October to...

Science nugget: Langmuir waves associated with magnetic holes in the solar wind

22 March 2023Langmuir waves are electrostatic waves near the electron plasma frequency, often observed in the solar wind. In a weakly collisional environment, such as the solar wind, wave-particle interactions play a fundamental role in the energy dissipation mechanisms. The study of Langmuir waves is of particular interest, as they could play an important...

Science nugget: Radial dependence of the peak intensity of solar energetic electron events in the inner heliosphere

15 March 2023Observing solar energetic electron (SEE) events with multiple spacecraft at different heliocentric distances is crucial to determine the transport effects of solar particle events. However, the radial dependence of SEE peak intensities is difficult to study due to the simultaneous occurrence of radial and longitudinal effects, which cannot be...

Science nugget: New insights about EUV brightenings in the quiet sun corona from the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager

8 March 2023Ever since their detection by Ellerman in 1917 more than a century ago, localised (sub-Mm in diameter) transient (lifetimes of less than 10 minutes) brightenings have been actively studied by the solar physics community. Although such features were originally identified in active regions, where the strong magnetic fields and plasma velocities...

Solar Orbiter’s unprecedented view of the quiet corona

27 October 2022The moment of closest approach took place on 12 October at 19:12 UTC (21:12 CEST), when Solar Orbiter was just 29% of the Earth’s distance from the Sun. This movie comes from 13 October, when the spacecraft’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) returned the highest resolution movie of the quiet corona ever taken with any instrument.

Solar Orbiter solves magnetic switchback mystery

12 September 2022With data from its closest pass of the Sun yet, the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft has found compelling clues as to the origin of magnetic switchbacks, and points towards how their physical formation mechanism might help accelerate the solar wind.

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Upcoming Events

17-19 April 2023: Science Working Team (SWT-36) meeting (Paris)

Past Events

15 February 2023: Executive Science Working Team (SWT-35) meeting (online)

16-18 January 2023: Science Operations (SOWG-22) meeting (ESAC, Madrid) and Remote-Sensing Group

31 December 2022: submission deadline for the A&A special issue on "Solar Orbiter First Results: nominal mission phase"

9 December 2022: Review of the SOOPs run at the Oct 2022 perihelion (online)

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