Data Consistent with 20-Year-Old Theory
University of Michigan | 2020 Apr 29
Magnetic flux findings suggest “profound consequences for basic solar processes.”
Continued analysis of Parker Solar Probe data is starting to create a clearer picture of the Sun’s magnetic activity, which may bolster our ability to predict dangerous solar events.
And the more information that comes in, the more it all fits with theories posited at the turn of the millennium by researchers at the University of Michigan. Justin Kasper, professor of climate and space sciences and engineering at U-M, said those current and former U-M researchers, led by Lennard Fisk, the Thomas M. Donahue Distinguished University Professor of Space Science, pieced together an intricate picture of the Sun’s workings long before Parker launched in August 2018.
“This isn’t like having the data and coming up with a theory that happens to line up with it,” said Kasper, who serves as principal investigator for Parker’s Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons (SWEAP) instrument suite. “This is possibly observational closure emerging on a theory that was put out two decades ago.” ...
Global Circulation of the Open Magnetic Flux of the Sun ~ L. A. Fisk, J. C. Kasper
- Astrophysical Journal Letters 894(1):L4 (2020 May 01) DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ab8acd