COSMOS Science Nuggets - Solar Orbiter

Science Nuggets - Solar Orbiter

Solar Orbiter Science Nuggets

Science Nugget: High-Resolution Observations of Clustered Dynamic Extreme-Ultraviolet Bright Tadpoles near the Footpoints of Coronal Loops

23 April 2025

The European Space Agency's (ESA) Solar Orbiter (SolO) [1], launched in February 2020, has ushered in a groundbreaking era of solar observation by capturing high-resolution images from unprecedented proximity to the Sun. On March 26, 2022, SolO reached its perihelion, i.e., the closest approach to the Sun, positioning the spacecraft within... read more

Science Nugget: Bursty acceleration and 3D trajectories of electrons in a solar flare

9 April 2025

Solar flares are the sudden explosion occurring in the sun’s atmosphere due to reconnection of magnetic field lines and emit radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio end even up to gamma ray frequencies. During the flare, accelerated electrons propagate upwards and downwards from the energy release site along magnetic field... read more

Science Nugget: Picoflare jets in the coronal holes and their link to the solar wind

2 April 2025

Charged particles continuously stream out from the million Kelvin hot corona as the solar wind. High-resolution extreme ultraviolet observations from the Solar Orbiter are providing new insights into the generation process of the solar wind. In particular, high-speed jets are observed to be widespread in darker interiors of coronal holes... read more

Science Nugget: Radial dependence of solar energetic particle peak fluxes and fluences

19 March 2025

As the core energy source of the solar system, the Sun continuously supplies energy to interplanetary space through persistent radiative and particle emissions. At the microscopic level, this energy propagates outward in the form of electromagnetic waves and particle streams of varying energies. Among these, Solar Energetic Particles (SEPs),... read more

Science Nugget: Analysis of Solar Eruptions Deflecting in the Low Corona

12 March 2025

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are the drivers of the most powerful geomagnetic storms and a major concern in space weather. A reliable prediction of the eruption and its subsequent trajectory is crucial to assess its potential threat to satellites, communication networks, or other systems. Multi-point observations, including Solar... read more

Science Nugget: Propagation of particles inside a magnetic cloud: Solar Orbiter insights

5 March 2025

Solar energetic particle (SEP) events are sudden bursts of particle intensities linked to solar transient activities [1, 2, 3]. These particles can be released into the solar wind or within interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs), as a result of impulsive acceleration during flares at the base of the parent ICME or when a newly formed... read more

Science Nugget: Assessment of the near Sun axial magnetic field of the 10 March 2022 CME observed by Solar Orbiter from active region helicity budget

26 February 2025

Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are energetic eruptions of plasma and magnetic fields from the solar atmosphere (Forbes 2000; Chen 2011; Webb and Howard 2012). Understanding the near-Sun magnetic field strength of CMEs is crucial as it plays a key role in shaping the early evolution of CME dynamics and their potential geoeffectiveness. However,... read more

Science Nugget: Rotational motions and signatures of the Alfvén waves in a fan spine topology

19 February 2025

Alfvén waves are of significant interest in the coronal heating problem due to their ability to transport energy from the lower layers of the Sun’s atmosphere to the corona [1]. However, their detection remains challenging because they are essentially rotational perturbations in plasma velocity and azimuthal components of the magnetic field,... read more

Science Nugget: ‘Sun’day everyday: 2 years of Solar Orbiter Science nuggets that shed light on some of our star’s mysteries

12 February 2025

Almost two years ago, and after a year since the start of the nominal science phase, we introduced the Solar Orbiter science nuggets to the solar and space science communities. These are short articles based on a topic related to the use of Solar Orbiter data and answering some of the fundamental questions in solar and space physics.

Science Nugget: Velocity field in the solar granulation from two vantage points

22 January 2025

In the solar photosphere, a bright cell pattern called granules are surrounded by a dark channel called intergranular lanes [1]. A granule is a manifestation of an overshooting of a hot upflow from the convectively unstable subsurface layers into the stable photosphere. This vigorous convective process results in generating dynamical... read more

— 10 Items per Page

Showing 1 - 10 of 58 results.

Nuggets archive