Magnetic reconnection sustains the mass budget of the solar wind

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Chen, Yajie, Peter, Hardi, Przybylski, Damien, Iijima, Haruhisa, Chitta, Lakshmi Pradeep
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Chen, Yajie
Peter, Hardi
Przybylski, Damien
Iijima, Haruhisa
Chitta, Lakshmi Pradeep
author_facet Chen, Yajie
Peter, Hardi
Przybylski, Damien
Iijima, Haruhisa
Chitta, Lakshmi Pradeep
contents The solar wind originates from regions of open magnetic fields on the Sun, but the relevant processes remain unsolved. We present a self-consistent numerical model of the source region of the wind, in which jets similar to those observed on the Sun naturally emerge due to magnetic reconnection between closed and open magnetic fields. In this process material is transferred from closed to open field lines and fed into the solar wind. We quantify the mass flux through the magnetic field connected to the heliosphere and find that it greatly exceeds the amount required to sustain the wind. This supports a decades-old suspicion based on spectroscopic observations and shows that magnetic reconnection in the low solar atmosphere could sustain the solar wind.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_11692
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Magnetic reconnection sustains the mass budget of the solar wind
Chen, Yajie
Peter, Hardi
Przybylski, Damien
Iijima, Haruhisa
Chitta, Lakshmi Pradeep
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
The solar wind originates from regions of open magnetic fields on the Sun, but the relevant processes remain unsolved. We present a self-consistent numerical model of the source region of the wind, in which jets similar to those observed on the Sun naturally emerge due to magnetic reconnection between closed and open magnetic fields. In this process material is transferred from closed to open field lines and fed into the solar wind. We quantify the mass flux through the magnetic field connected to the heliosphere and find that it greatly exceeds the amount required to sustain the wind. This supports a decades-old suspicion based on spectroscopic observations and shows that magnetic reconnection in the low solar atmosphere could sustain the solar wind.
title Magnetic reconnection sustains the mass budget of the solar wind
topic Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.11692