Solar Orbiter traces solar wind to its source

28 May 2024 ESA’s Solar Orbiter made the first ever connection between measurements of the solar wind around a spacecraft to high-resolution images of the Sun’s surface at a close distance. The success opens a new way for solar physicists to study the source regions of the solar wind. read more

Science nugget: Real time space weather prediction with Solar Orbiter

22 May 2024 Space weather has the potential to significantly disrupt human technology both in space and on the ground, including loss of satellites, damage to power grids and communication blackouts. Fortunately, many of these effects can be mitigated with preventative measures should the arrival time and severity of the storm be known in advance. Since the... read more

Science nugget: Hard X-ray and microwave pulsations, a signature of the flare energy release process

15 May 2024 In this research, we leverage new observations obtained by the Spectrometer/Telescope for Imaging X-rays (STIX) onboard Solar Orbiter combined with microwave observations from the ground-based Expanded Owens Valley Solar Array (EOVSA) to study the spatial evolution of QPPs in time and energy. read more

Solar Orbiter to watch for eruptions during total eclipse

4 April 2024 On 8 April 2024, a great swath of the United States and Mexico will experience a total solar eclipse, with viewers getting the rare chance to see the Sun’s stunning outer atmosphere. read more

Solar Orbiter prepared for ‘worst-case scenario’

2 April 2024 The ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter is approaching the closest point to the Sun in its current orbit. It is an important time for the mission’s science activities, and the mission control team at ESA is constantly preparing for any possible problems the spacecraft might face as it swoops past our active and unpredictable star. read more

ESA and NASA team up to study solar wind

28 March 2024 In the run up to April’s total solar eclipse, ESA-led Solar Orbiter and NASA-led Parker Solar Probe are both at their closest approach to the Sun. Tomorrow, they are taking the opportunity to join hands in studying the driving rain of plasma that streams from the Sun, fills the Solar System, and causes dazzlement and destruction at Earth. read more

Science nugget: Relativistic electrons accelerated by an interplanetary shock wave

1 February 2024 Interplanetary (IP) shock waves, often triggered by solar phenomena like coronal mass ejections (CMEs), are efficient accelerators of ions and, in rare instances, electrons. Our study presents the first-ever observations of field-aligned beams (FABs) of electrons reaching relativistic energies ahead of an IP shock. These measurements were made... read more

Science nugget: Deformations in the velocity distribution functions of protons and alpha particles observed by Solar Orbiter in the inner heliosphere

18 January 2024 The solar wind is observed to be turbulent. Turbulence in plasmas involves a complex cross-scale coupling of fields, thus how the energy contained in the large-scale fluctuations of electromagnetic and velocity fields cascades all the way down to the kinetic scales, and how such turbulence interacts with particles, remain unsolved problems in... read more

Science nugget: Modelling Two Consecutive Energetic Storm Particle Events observed by Solar Orbiter

11 January 2024

Energetic Storm Particle (ESP) events are a type of solar energetic particle (SEP) events characterized by the rapid increase in the SEP intensity associated with a shock driven by a coronal mass ejection (CME). Two ESP events, both emanating from the same active region, were observed by the Solar Orbiter on August 31, 2022, and September 5,... read more

Science nugget: Understanding STIX hard X-ray source motions using field extrapolations

14 December 2023 We present key results of a case study of an M4-class flare on March 28, 2022, seen by STIX and EUI/FSI onboard Solar Orbiter, and SDO/AIA. An interesting aspect of this flare was the change in the non-thermal hard X-ray (HXR) source configuration during a late HXR peak, changing from the classical two footpoints at the ends of the flaring loops... read more