The Sun’s magnetic field is generated ‘only’ about 30,000 kilometers below its surface, a discovery that can help better understand the dynamic processes of the star and more accurately predict powerful solar storms.
A study that publishes Nature led by the University of Edinburgh (United Kingdom) and with the participation, among others, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA), He made models with a series of complex calculations on a NASA supercomputer.
The finding that possibly places the origin of the magnetic field at about 30,000 kilometers below the surface contradicts previous theories that suggest that the phenomenon has deep origins, starting at more than 200,000 kilometers.
That start so close to the surface of our star could be the origin of solar spots and flares, which are generated internally through a process called dynamo action.
Solar storms also cause damage
Although strong solar storms, such as those recorded this month, can leave impressive polar auroras, they also cause damage to satellites, electrical networks, radio communications or positioning systems.
The team generated an accurate model of the Sun’s surface and found that when they simulated certain perturbations or changes in the flow of plasma (ionized gas) within the top 5 to 10 percent of the Sun, those surface changes were enough to generate magnetic field patterns. realistic.
However, simulations that took into account the deeper layers of our star resulted in less realistic solar activity.
Improve solar storm predictions
Over the years, astronomers have made great strides in understanding the origins of the solar dynamo – the physical process that generates the magnetic field – but limitations remain.
In the current study, the team developed new, state-of-the-art numerical simulations to model the solar magnetic field that takes into account torsional oscillations, a cyclic pattern of gas and plasma flow in and around the Sun.
Since the Sun is not solid like the Earth and the Moon does not rotate as a single body. Its rotation varies with latitude and like the solar magnetic cycle of 11 years, torsional oscillations also undergo a cycle of that same period.
The model also explains how sunspots follow the patterns of the Sun’s magnetic activity, another detail missing from the deep origin theory.
With a greater understanding of the solar dynamo, researchers hope to improve predictions of solar storms, which may also be helped by the magnetic field generated in the outermost layers of the Sun.
“We know that the dynamo acts like a giant clock with many complex pieces that interact,” but some are still unknown and others do not know how they fit together, although this new idea is “essential” to understand and predict it, said the first author of the study, Geoffrey Vasil, from the University of Edinburgh.
FEW (EFE, NatureMIT)
