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Langmuir waves are often observed upstream of planetary bow shocks and interplanetary (IP) shocks. Waveform capture (WFC) measurements, obtained during Juno’s cruise phase, reveal the occurrence of Langmuir waves, as well as other wave modes, in association with IP shocks and IP coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) at distances from ∼1.3 to ∼5.4 au. This is a unique database of ICME/IP shock events with WFCs in the equatorial plane in these radial distances. We identified 12 events when WFCs were obtained within 36 hr upstream of the IP shock/ICME event (10 within less than 10 hr). Langmuir waves were observed at 9, a significantly higher occurrence than has previously been reported using spectral observations from other spacecraft. The larger rate is likely due to the bursty nature of Langmuir waves in combination with the higher time resolution of WFC data compared to spectral data. Observed peak amplitudes of ∼16 mV m ^−1 (peak to peak) are comparable to those observed upstream of outer planetary bow shocks. The highest peak amplitudes occurred in the strongest shocks (largest magnetic compression) and when waveforms were obtained closest to the shock. Langmuir waves were observed as much as 8 hr upstream. The WFCs provide electron density on rapid time scales, including an increase from ∼0.05 to 0.25 cm ^−3 in ∼0.01 s across an IP shock ramp. Although electron measurements were not obtained, these observations provide evidence for the energization of electrons at the shock or ICME front and, in some events, for propagation over large distances while maintaining the features in the distributions necessary to destabilize Langmuir waves.

We present a 3D morphological and field reconstruction of a coronal mass ejection (CME) from 2023 November 28, which hits three spacecraft near 1 au: Wind at Earth’s L1 Lagrange point, STEREO-A with a longitudinal separation of 6 $\mathop{.}\limits^{\unicode{x000b0}}$ 5 west of Earth, and Solar Orbiter (SolO) at 10 $\mathop{.}\limits^{\unicode{x000b0}}$ 7 east of Earth. The reconstruction assumes a magnetic flux rope (MFR) structure for the CME. With this event, we test whether field tracings observed by a spacecraft passing near the central axis of a CME MFR (STEREO-A) can be used to successfully predict the field behavior seen by a spacecraft 17 ^∘ away (SolO), which has a more grazing encounter with the CME. We find that the MFR model does have significant success in simultaneously reproducing the field signs and rotations seen at STEREO-A, Wind, and SolO. This provides support for the MFR paradigm for CME structure. However, the SolO measurements, which are farthest from the central axis of the MFR, show less defined MFR signatures, presumably due to a greater degree of erosion and degradation of the MFR structure far from its central axis.

This study investigates the directional and intensity distributions of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) across a heliocentric distance range of approximately 0.1–30 au. Measurements from multiple spacecraft reveal that these distributions align closely with the Parker spiral configuration in general. Nevertheless, the deviation from the model is significant and regular. To analyze these deviations, we organized the IMF observations based on the orientation and intensity predicted by the Parker model. The average angular deviation from the Parker spiral increases between 0.1 and 1 au, stabilizing from 1 to 30 au. The magnetic field components perpendicular to the Parker spiral are more likely to lay in the latitudinal and longitudinal directions during the solar maximum and minimum, respectively. The normalized intensity distribution follows a log-normal distribution, with its broadening positively correlated with increasing heliocentric distance. These characteristics cannot be fully attributed to Alfvénic fluctuations or the nonradial component near the potential field source surface. Instead, interactions of flux tubes in the outer heliosphere play a significant role in shaping the IMF. Our results provide a comprehensive assessment of the frequency with which planets encounter non-Parker upstream conditions.

The features of interplanetary shocks driven by interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) observed by WIND (∼1.0 au) and Venus Express (VEX; ∼0.72 au) during the same period are statistically analyzed by comparing their similarities and differences. It is found that the proportion of ICME-driven shocks in all shocks decreases slightly from ∼0.72 to ∼1 au. The yearly occurrence of ICME-driven shocks at both ∼0.72 and ∼1 au roughly follows the sunspot cycle, while the magnetic field ratio does not show such a correspondence. In each year, the annual medians of the shock angle for ICME-driven shocks at ∼1 au are consistently larger than those at ∼0.72 au, and the annual medians of the magnetic field ratio for events at ∼1 au are slightly smaller than those at ∼0.72 au. Planar magnetic structures (PMSs) downstream of ICME-driven shocks are also analyzed. Approximately 28.57% of the detected PMS events from VEX observations and 28.84% from WIND observations cover the entire 2 hr intervals downstream of the shocks, which are referred to as full PMS events. Through comparative analysis for VEX and WIND observations, it is found that strong and quasi-perpendicular ICME-driven shocks are the most preferable conditions for full PMS formation.

Minimum variance analysis of magnetic fields (MVAB) is conventionally implemented to determine the normal vector of a planar magnetic structure (PMS) for which the average of the normal magnetic field component vanishes (i.e., $\left\langle {B}_{n}\right\rangle $ = 0). A more suitable normal vector determination method for single-spacecraft measurements, based on the minimum variance concept, is recommended for PMS studies, namely the MVAB method associated with the constraint $\left\langle {B}_{n}\right\rangle $ = 0 (MVABC). An analytical PMS model is employed to verify the performance of the MVAB and MVABC methods for three different types of PMSs, under the circumstances that the ${B}_{n}$ values are highly fluctuated but the $\left\langle {B}_{n}\right\rangle $ remains zero. The results show that MVABC outperforms MVAB in estimating the PMS normal vector. By analyzing a large number of test data sets randomly selected from the original data set, the conclusion remains unchanged. The normal of a PMS discontinuity, which is associated with significant ${B}_{n}$ fluctuations, is accurately predicted by MVABC and the cross-product method, as compared to MVAB. Moreover, the normal of the discontinuity aligns with the PMS normal, as expected. Two PMS events observed by the Advanced Composition Explorer spacecraft in the sheath of an interplanetary coronal mass ejection are presented. From the MVAB perspective, these two events are not classified as PMSs. The estimated normals of the in situ PMS discontinuities from the cross-product method form angles between 10° and 20° with the predicted PMS normals from MVABC. Discussions are given regarding the failure of the MVAB method in PMS identification.

In early 2024 May, the solar active region AR 13664 released a series of X-class solar flares and multiple coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that resulted in the strongest geomagnetic storm of the last 20 yr. This study aims at improving our understanding of the magnetic connectivity between Earth and the solar corona by reconstructing the magnetic footpoint of the Earth on the solar surface during this geomagnetic superstorm. A Monte Carlo simulation was applied to model the random walk of interplanetary magnetic field lines due to low-frequency turbulence in the solar wind. This model uses local diffusion coefficients dependent on magnetic fluctuations and the correlation length of solar wind turbulence. The simulation revealed an enhanced diffusion of magnetic field lines due to the passage of CMEs, leading to a broader area of solar surface magnetically connected to Earth, particularly near AR 13664. This proximity facilitated the rapid propagation of solar energetic protons, increasing fluxes observed at L1. The findings have significant implications for predicting space weather effects on Earth and other solar system bodies, contributing to the development of more accurate models for future space exploration missions. Since the Parker spiral reconstruction is consistent with the Magnetic Connectivity Tool, validating the model's reliability, it shows promise for reconstructing magnetic connections for potential real-time purposes.

The gradient and curvature of the Parker spiral interplanetary magnetic field give rise to curvature and gradient guiding-center drifts on cosmic rays (CRs). The plasma turbulence present in interplanetary space is thought to suppress the drifts; however, the extent to which they are reduced is not clear. We investigate the reduction of the drifts using a new analytic model of heliospheric turbulence where the dominant 2D component has both a wavevector and magnetic field vector normal to the Parker spiral, thus fulfilling the main criterion of 2D turbulence. We use full-orbit test-particle simulations of energetic protons in the modeled interplanetary turbulence, and analyze the mean drift velocity of the particles in heliolatitude. We release energetic proton populations of 10, 100, and 1000 MeV close to the Sun and introduce a new method to assess their drift. We compare the drift in the turbulent heliosphere to drift in a configuration without turbulence, and to theoretical estimates of drift reduction. We find that drifts are reduced by a factor 0.2–0.9 of that expected for the heliospheric configuration without turbulence. This corresponds to a much less efficient suppression than what is predicted by theoretical estimates, particularly at low proton energies. We conclude that guiding-center drifts are a significant factor for the evolution of CR intensities in the heliosphere, including the propagation of solar energetic particles in the inner heliosphere.

We investigate whether Alfvénic fluctuations (AFs) can affect the structure of magnetic ejecta (ME) within interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs). We study an ICME observed on 2001 December 29 at 1 au by the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) and Wind, at a total angular separation of ~0 $\mathop{.}\limits^{\unicode{x000b0}}$ 8 (~ 0.014 au). We focus on the correlation and complexity of its magnetic structure measured between two spacecraft in association with large-amplitude AFs. The Alfvénicity of the ME is investigated in terms of the residual energy and cross helicity of fluctuations. We find that as for the event of interest, large-amplitude AFs occur in the rear region of the ME at both Wind and ACE with a duration of about 6 hr. We compare the correlation of the magnetic field strength and vector components measured between Wind and ACE, and investigate complexity in terms of the magnetic hodograms. The region showing AFs is found to be associated with a decreased correlation of the magnetic field components and an increased complexity of the ME magnetic configuration detected at ACE and Wind, which may be due to the fact that the two spacecraft crossing the same ME along different trajectories likely sampled AFs in different oscillation phases. Combining multipoint in situ measurements and remote-sensing observations of the ICME source region, we further discuss different potential sources of the AFs.

Using Parker Solar Probe data from orbits 8 through 17, we examine fluctuation amplitudes throughout the critical region where the solar wind flow speed approaches and then exceeds the Alfvén wave speed, taking account of various exigencies of the plasma data. In contrast to WKB theory for noninteracting Alfvén waves streaming away from the Sun, the magnetic and kinetic fluctuation energies per unit volume are not monotonically decreasing. Instead, there is clear violation of conservation of standard WKB wave action, which is consistent with previous indications of strong in situ fluctuation energy input in the solar wind near the Alfvén critical region. This points to strong violations of WKB theory due to nonlinearity (turbulence) and major energy input near the critical region, which we interpret as likely due to driving by large-scale coronal shear flows.

Turbulent rotations of the magnetic field vector are observed in the Alfvénic streams of the solar wind where the magnetic field strength remains close to a constant. They can lead to reversals of the radial magnetic field component or switchbacks. It is not ruled out from the data that the rotations are divisible into the sum of small random angular deflections. In this work, we develop tools aimed at the analysis of the one-point statistical properties of the directional fluctuations of the magnetic field vector in the solar wind. The angular fluctuations are modeled by a drift-diffusion process which admits the exponential distribution as steady-state solution. Realizations of the stochastic process are obtained by solving the corresponding Langevin equation. It is shown that the cumulative effects of consecutive small-angle deflections can yield frequent reversals of the magnetic field vector even when the concentration parameter of the directional data is large. The majority of the rotations are associated with nearly transverse magnetic field fluctuations in this case.

The minimum value of the geomagnetic aa index has served as a remarkably successful predictor of solar cycle amplitude. This value is reached near or just after sunspot minimum, when both the near-Earth solar wind speed and interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) strength fall to their lowest values. At this time, the heliospheric current sheet is flattened toward the heliographic equator and the dominant source of the IMF is the Sun’s axial dipole moment, which, in turn, has its source in the polar fields. As recognized previously, the success of ${{aa}}_{\min }$ as solar cycle precursor provides support for dynamo models in which the sunspots of a given cycle are produced by winding up the poloidal field built up during the previous cycle. Because they are highly concentrated toward the poles by the surface meridional flow, the polar fields are difficult to measure reliably. Here we point out that the observed value of the radial IMF strength at solar minimum can be used to constrain the polar field measurements, and that this parameter, which is directly proportional to the Sun’s axial dipole strength, may be an even better solar cycle predictor than geomagnetic activity.

Small-scale magnetic flux ropes (SMFRs) fill much of the solar wind, but their origin and evolution are debated. We apply our recently developed, improved Grad–Shafranov algorithm for the detection and reconstruction of SMFRs to data from Parker Solar Probe, Solar Orbiter, Wind, and Voyager 1 and 2 to detect events from 0.06 to 10 au. We observe that the axial flux density is the same for SMFRs of all sizes at a fixed heliocentric distance but decreases with distance owing to solar wind expansion. Additionally, using the difference in speed between SMFRs, we find that the vast majority of SMFRs will make contact with others at least once during the 100 hr transit to 1 au. Such contact would allow SMFRs to undergo magnetic reconnection, allowing for processes such as merging via the coalescence instability. Furthermore, we observe that the number of SMFRs with higher axial flux increases significantly with distance from the Sun. Axial flux is conserved under solar wind expansion, but the observation can be explained by a model in which SMFRs undergo turbulent evolution by stochastically merging to produce larger SMFRs. This is supported by the observed log-normal axial flux distribution. Lastly, we derive the global number of SMFRs above 10 ^15 Mx near the Sun to investigate whether SMFRs begin their journey as small-scale solar ejections or are continuously generated within the outer corona and solar wind.

Auroral kilometric radiation (AKR) is a widely existing strong radio emission from the Earth’s magnetosphere and is generated by suprathermal (1–10 keV) electrons in the polar cavity. Previous works have demonstrated that AKR can contribute to the coupling of the magnetosphere–ionosphere–atmosphere, but its relation to the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) has not been studied so far. Here, we examine the data of Van Allen Probes and identify a total of 5000 AKR events from 2012 October to 2019 July. Most AKR events (4282) correspond to the dominant parallel component ${B}_{\parallel }(=\sqrt{{({B}_{x})}^{2}+{({B}_{y})}^{2}})$ of IMF. There are the most (1391) events in 2018 (the solar minimum year) and the least (258) events in 2014 (the solar maximum year), corresponding to more (less) occurrences for the longer duration (> 30 minutes) of southward IMF ( B _z < 0) in 2018 (2014). In the Earth’s Northern Hemisphere, there are the most (865) events in the autumn (August–October), corresponding to dominant B _x < 0. In the Earth’s Southern Hemisphere, there are the most (830) events in the autumn (February–April), corresponding to dominant B _x > 0. The probable reason for the above results is that the longer duration of B _z < 0 can yield the longer magnetic reconnection, and the dominant B _x < 0 ( B _x > 0) is favorable for the single-lobe magnetic reconnection in the northern (southern) hemisphere, allowing more suprathermal electrons into the polar source cavity and generating more AKRs. These current results suggest that IMF is very important for the occurrence of AKR and can be widely applied to similar auroral radio emissions in other magnetized planets of the solar system.

The Parker Solar Probe's discovery that magnetic switchbacks and velocity spikes in the young solar wind are abundant has prompted intensive research into their origin(s) and formation mechanism(s) in the solar atmosphere. Recent studies, based on in situ measurements and numerical simulations, argue that velocity spikes are produced through interchange magnetic reconnection. Our work studies the relationship between interplanetary velocity spikes and coronal brightenings induced by changes in the photospheric magnetic field. Our analysis focuses on the characteristic periodicities of velocity spikes detected by the Proton Alpha Sensor on the Solar Orbiter during its fifth perihelion pass. Throughout the time period analyzed here, we estimate their origin along the boundary of a coronal hole. Around the boundary region, we identify periodic variations in coronal brightening activity observed by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory. The spectral characteristics of the time series of in situ velocity spikes, remote coronal brightenings, and remote photospheric magnetic flux exhibit correspondence in their periodicities. Therefore, we suggest that the localized small-scale magnetic flux within coronal holes fuels a magnetic reconnection process that can be observed as slight brightness augmentations and outward fluctuations or jets. These dynamic elements may act as mediators, bonding magnetic reconnection with the genesis of velocity spikes and magnetic switchbacks.

The anisotropy of energetic particles provides essential information to help resolve the underlying fundamental physics of their spatial distributions, injection, acceleration, and transport processes. In this work, we report an energetic ion enhancement that is characterized by very large and long-lasting anisotropies observed by STEREO A and Solar Orbiter, which are nearly aligned along the same nominal Parker spiral. This ion enhancement appears at the rising phase of a widespread solar energetic particle event that was associated with the farside coronal mass ejection on 2022 February 15. According to our analysis, the long-lasting anisotropy resulted from the continuous injection of energetic ions from a well-connected particle source located beyond the STEREO A’s orbit. Solar Orbiter also observed an interval of very large anisotropy dominated exclusively by sunward streaming ions but with the additional implication that it detected the very early phase of ion injections onto magnetic field lines that newly connected to the particle source, which is likely the first reported event of this kind. These results further illustrate how energetic particle anisotropy information, in particular from multiple observer locations, can be used to disentangle the sources and transport processes of energetic ions, even when their heliospheric context is not simple.

Upon interaction, a pair of magnetic flux ropes can merge to form a new pair, each consisting of opposite helicity along their axis. Magnetic helicity along such new structures may annihilate and release the energy of the azimuthal magnetic field. In this study, we model the deformation dynamics of such structures within the solar wind at 1 au. The perturbation front of deformation propagates along the rope axis at approximately the Alfvén speed. However, the process of annihilating 90% of the azimuthal components is much slower and is affected by the screw pitch of the magnetic field. Such a deformation process causes the plasma in the transition region between the two opposite chiralities to spin about the rope axis. The resulting plasma heating is discussed accordingly. Our results provide insights for estimating the lifetimes of such flux ropes, facilitating observational efforts to identify them. This process may also apply to the behavior of magnetic flux ropes in other space and astronomical plasma environments.

Global magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) models play an important role in the infrastructure of space weather forecasting. Validating such models commonly utilizes in situ solar wind measurements made near the Earth’s orbit. The purpose of this study is to test the performance of G3DMHD (a data driven, time-dependent, 3D MHD model of the solar wind) with Parker Solar Probe (PSP) measurements. Since its launch in 2018 August, PSP has traversed the inner heliosphere at different radial distances sunward of the Earth (the closest approach ∼13.3 R _⊙ ), thus providing a good opportunity to study evolution of the solar wind and to validate heliospheric models of the solar wind. The G3DMHD model simulation is driven by a sequence of maps of the photospheric field extrapolated to the assumed source surface (2.5 R _⊙ ) using the potential field model from 2018 to 2022, which covers the first 15 PSP orbits. The Pearson correlation coefficient (cc) and the mean absolute scaled error (MASE) are used as the metrics to evaluate the model performance. It is found that the model performs better for both magnetic intensity (cc = 0.75; MASE = 0.60) and the solar wind density (cc = 0.73; MASE = 0.50) than for the solar wind speed (cc = 0.15; MASE = 1.29) and temperature (cc = 0.28; MASE = 1.14). This is due primarily to lack of accurate boundary conditions. The well-known underestimate of the magnetic field in solar minimum years is also present. Assuming that the radial magnetic field becomes uniformly distributed with latitude at or below 18 R _⊙ (the inner boundary of the computation domain), the agreement in the magnetic intensity significantly improves (cc = 0.83; MASE = 0.49).

The distribution of the energy transfer rate is critical for the interpretation of the intermittent energy cascade in the solar wind turbulence. However, the true observational distribution of the energy transfer rate in the solar wind and its anisotropy remain unknown. Here, we use a 7 day interval measured by Wind in the fast solar wind and investigate the distribution and anisotropy of the energy transfer rate based on the log-Poisson model. We find that the probability density distribution consists of two parts. The majority part locates at smaller values and is consistent with the log-normal distribution. The estimated mean value and standard deviation of the logarithmic energy transfer rate for the majority are both smaller in the direction parallel to the local mean magnetic field than in the perpendicular direction. The mean value displays a power-law shape with respect to the scale, with flatter index in the parallel direction and steeper index in the perpendicular direction. The minority part locates at larger values and expands as the scale decreases, indicating the growing intermittency toward smaller scales. The flatness for parallel logarithmic energy transfer rate is larger than that for perpendicular. And it rises as the scale decreases for all directions, demonstrating the relatively longer tail of the distribution with decreasing scale. Our results provide new insight to help interpret the intermittent energy cascade process in the solar wind turbulence.

Using a three-dimensional global magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation model, we investigate the effects of different interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) clock angles on the tail configuration of the Martian magnetic pileup boundary (MPB) and bow shock (BS). The study reveals the following: (1) The cross sections of the tail MPB and BS are approximately elliptical. The MPB tail cross section generally elongates in the direction of the IMF clock angle, whereas the BS tail cross section is roughly elongated perpendicular to the IMF clock angle direction. (2) An IMF with a northward component can cause the tail cross section of the MPB to shift slightly to the south when the intense crustal magnetic fields are located on the dayside. (3) As the tail distance from Mars increases, the eccentricity of the cross section ellipses of both the MPB and BS tail increases, as well as the major and minor axes. Additionally, the major and minor axes of the tail MPB’s cross section ellipses begin to decrease at the far magnetotail, suggesting that the Martian MPB tail might be a closed structure on the nightside.

A key challenge in space weather forecasting is accurately predicting the magnetic field topology of interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs), specifically the north–south magnetic field component ( B _z ) for Earth-directed CMEs. Heliospheric MHD models typically use spheromaks to represent the magnetic structure of CMEs. However, when inserted into the ambient interplanetary magnetic field, spheromaks can experience a phenomenon reminiscent of the condition known as the “spheromak tilting instability,” causing its magnetic axis to rotate. From the perspective of space weather forecasting, it is crucial to understand the effect of this rotation on predicting B _z at 1 au while implementing the spheromak model for realistic event studies. In this work, we study this by modeling a CME event on 2013 April 11 using the European Heliospheric Forecasting Information Asset. Our results show that a significant spheromak rotation up to 90° has occurred by the time it reaches 1 au, while the majority of this rotation occurs below 0.3 au. This total rotation resulted in poor predicted magnetic field topology of the ICME at 1 au. To address this issue, we further investigated the influence of spheromak density on mitigating rotation. The results show that the spheromak rotation is less for higher densities. Importantly, we observe a substantial reduction in the uncertainties associated with predicting B _z when there is minimal spheromak rotation. Therefore, we conclude that spheromak rotation adversely affects B _z prediction in the analyzed event, emphasizing the need for caution when employing spheromaks in global MHD models for space weather forecasting.

Interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) are defined as “coherent” if they are capable of responding to external perturbations in a collective manner. This implies that information must be able to propagate across ICME structures, and if this is not the case, single-point in situ measurements cannot be considered as indicative of global ICME properties. Here, we investigate the role of Alfvénic fluctuations (AFs) as mediators of ICME coherence. We consider multipoint magnetic field and plasma measurements of 10 ICMEs observed by the ACE and Wind spacecraft at 1 au at longitudinal separations of 0.5°–0.7°. For each event, we analyze the Alfvénicity in terms of the residual energy and cross helicity of fluctuations, and the coherence in terms of the magnetic correlation between Wind and ACE. We find that ∼65% and 90% of ICME sheaths and magnetic ejecta (MEs), respectively, present extended AFs covering at least 20% of the structure. Cross helicity suggests AFs of solar and interplanetary origin may coexist in the ICME population at 1 au. AFs are mainly concentrated downstream of shocks and in the back of MEs. The magnetic field is poorly correlated within sheaths, while the correlation decreases from the front to the back of the MEs for most magnetic field components. AFs are also associated with lower magnetic field correlations. This suggests either that ICME coherence is not mediated by Alfvén waves, implying that the coherence scale may be smaller than previously predicted, or that the magnetic field correlation is not a measure of coherence.

Alfvénicity is a well-known property, common in the solar wind, characterized by a high correlation between magnetic and velocity fluctuations. Data from the Parker Solar Probe (PSP) enable the study of this property closer to the Sun than ever before, as well as in the sub-Alfvénic solar wind. We consider scale-dependent measures of Alfvénicity based on second-order functions of the magnetic and velocity increments as a function of time lag, including the normalized cross helicity σ _c and residual energy σ _r . Scale-dependent Alfvénicity is strongest for lags near the correlation scale and increases when moving closer to the Sun. We find that σ _r typically remains close to the maximally negative value compatible with σ _c . We did not observe significant changes in measures of Alfvénicity between sub-Alfvénic and super-Alfvénic wind. During most times, the solar wind was highly Alfvénic; however, lower Alfvénicity was observed when PSP approached the heliospheric current sheet or other magnetic structures with sudden changes in the radial magnetic field, non-unidirectional strahl electron pitch angle distributions, and strong electron density contrasts. These results are consistent with a picture in which Alfvénic fluctuations generated near the photosphere transport outward, forming highly Alfvénic states in the young solar wind, and subsequent interactions with large-scale structures and gradients lead to weaker Alfvénicity, as commonly observed at larger heliocentric distances.

We present a stochastic field line mapping model where the interplanetary magnetic field lines are described by a density distribution function satisfying a Fokker–Planck equation that is solved numerically. Due to the spiral geometry of the nominal Parker field and to the evolving nature of solar wind turbulence, the heliospheric diffusion of the magnetic field lines is both heterogeneous and anisotropic, including a radial component. The longitudinal distributions of the magnetic field lines are shown to be close to circular Gaussian distributions, although they develop a noticeable skewness. The magnetic field lines emanating from the Sun are found to differ, on average, from the spirals predicted by Parker. Although the spirals remain close to Archimedean, they are here underwound, on average. Our model predicts a spiral angle that is smaller by ∼5° than the Parker spiral angle at Earth’s orbit for the same solar wind speed of V _sw = 400 km s ^−1 . It also predicts an angular position on the solar disk of the best magnetically connected footpoint to an observer at 1 au that is shifted westward by ∼10° with respect to the Parker’s field model. This significantly changes the angle of the most probable magnetic connection between possible sources on the Sun and observers in the inner heliosphere. The results have direct implications for the heliospheric transport of “scatter-free” electrons accelerated in the aftermath of solar eruptions.

On 2022 February 15, an impressive filament eruption was observed off the solar eastern limb from three remote-sensing viewpoints, namely, Earth, STEREO-A, and Solar Orbiter. In addition to representing the most-distant observed filament at extreme ultraviolet wavelengths—captured by Solar Orbiter's field of view extending to above 6 R _⊙ —this event was also associated with the release of a fast (∼2200 km s ^−1 ) coronal mass ejection (CME) that was directed toward BepiColombo and Parker Solar Probe. These two probes were separated by 2° in latitude, 4° in longitude, and 0.03 au in radial distance around the time of the CME-driven shock arrival in situ. The relative proximity of the two probes to each other and the Sun (∼0.35 au) allows us to study the mesoscale structure of CMEs at Mercury's orbit for the first time. We analyze similarities and differences in the main CME-related structures measured at the two locations, namely, the interplanetary shock, the sheath region, and the magnetic ejecta. We find that, despite the separation between the two spacecraft being well within the typical uncertainties associated with determination of CME geometric parameters from remote-sensing observations, the two sets of in situ measurements display some profound differences that make understanding the overall 3D CME structure particularly challenging. Finally, we discuss our findings within the context of space weather at Mercury's distance and in terms of the need to investigate solar transients via spacecraft constellations with small separations, which has been gaining significant attention during recent years.

The solar magnetic fields emerging from the photosphere into the chromosphere and corona are comprised of a combination of closed (field lines with both ends rooted at the Sun) and open (field lines with only one end at the Sun) fields. Since the early 2000s, the magnitude of total unsigned open magnetic flux estimated by coronal models has been in significant disagreement with in situ spacecraft observations, especially during solar maximum. Estimates of total open unsigned magnetic flux using coronal hole observations (e.g., using extreme ultraviolet or helium (He) I) are in general, in average agreement with the coronal model results and thus show similar disagreements with in situ observations. This paper provides a brief overview of the problem, summarizes the proposed explanations for the discrepancies, and presents results that strongly support the explanation that the discrepancy is due to dynamics at the open-closed boundary. These results are derived from the determination of the total unsigned open magnetic flux, utilizing the Wang–Sheeley–Arge model at a particular spatial resolution and different field-line tracing methods. One of these methods produces excellent agreement with in situ observations. Our results imply that strong magnetic fields in close proximity to active regions and residing near the boundaries of mid-latitude coronal holes are the primary source of the missing open flux. Furthermore, the results outlined here resolve many of the seemingly contradictory facts that have made the open-flux problem so difficult.

Magnetospheric relativistic electrons are accelerated during substorms and strong convection events that occur during high-intensity long-duration continuous auroral electrojet activity (HILDCAA) events, associated with solar wind high-speed streams (coming from coronal holes). From an analysis of ∼2–20 MeV electrons at L ∼ 2–7 measured by the Van Allen Probe satellite, it is shown that ∼3.4–4.1 days long HILDCAA events are characterized by ∼7.2 MeV electron acceleration in the L ∼ 4.0–6.0 region, which occurs ∼2.9–3.4 days after the onset of HILDCAA. The dominant acceleration process is due to wave–particle interactions between magnetospheric electromagnetic chorus waves and substorm-injected ∼100 keV electrons. The longer the HILDCAA and chorus last, the higher the maximum energy of the accelerated relativistic electrons. The acceleration to higher and higher energies is due to a bootstrap mechanism.

The relationship between CME properties in the corona and their interplanetary counterparts is not well understood. Until recently, a wide spatial gap existed between the two regions, which prevented us from disentangling the spatial and temporal evolution of CMEs. NASA’s Parker Solar Probe (PSP) has imaged multiple CMEs since its launch in 2018, but these events either intercepted the spacecraft far from the corona or completely missed it. Here we describe one of the first CMEs observed simultaneously by remote sensing and in situ instruments, and compare the corresponding measured properties, such as orientation, cross section diameter, density, and speed. The CME encounter occurred on 2022 June 2, while PSP was around 14 solar radii from the Sun center. We reconstruct the CME with forward modeling and determine its morphology and kinematics. The reconstruction suggests that PSP misses the CME apex but encounters its flank. The encounter time matches the period when the PSP in situ measurements indicate the passage of a CME. We also reconstruct the flux rope diameter and orientation using the in situ magnetic field measurements. The results are consistent with the CME reconstruction from imaging data. The close agreement between remote sensing and in situ analyses suggests that discrepancies found in past studies are more likely associated with the CME temporal evolution. We also find that the magnetic field of the CME flank extrapolated to 1 au is well below the average solar wind background and likely indistinguishable from it. This point could explain past events where the CMEs' interplanetary counterparts were not identified.

A rarefaction region (RR) occurs at the trailing edge of the fast solar wind stream. It comes from an area of small longitudinal extent on the solar surface and exhibits a fine and complex structure. In our study, we did a superposed epoch analysis of the proton and α parameters across the RR and observed their gradual evolution. We did not find any clear boundary between the fast and slow solar winds inside the RR because a majority of our observations show that most of the RR plasma corresponds to the fast solar wind; only the α –proton drift velocity decreases from the beginning of the RR. We investigate different ways of its reduction in interplanetary space and show that this feature is likely associated with the mirroring of the multicomponent solar wind. Nevertheless, considering the observed solar wind characteristics and taking into account the mutual relations between the proton and α parameters, we define the composition boundary where the α relative abundance and α –proton temperature ratio change abruptly from the values typical for the fast wind toward slow wind values. This boundary is the most probable candidate for the stream interface. Based on these findings, we speculate that the RR formation starts already near the Sun and formulate two possible scenarios.

We present a statistical investigation of the radial evolution of 28 interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs), measured in situ by the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft from 2018 October to 2022 August. First, by analyzing the radial distribution of ICME classification based on magnetic hodograms, we find that coherent configurations are more likely to be observed close to the Sun. By contrast, more complex configurations are observed farther out. We also notice that the post-ICME magnetic field is more impacted following an ICME passage at larger heliocentric distances. Second, with a multilinear robust regression, we derive a slower magnetic ejecta (ME) expansion rate within 1 au compared to previous statistical estimates. Then, investigating the magnetic field fluctuations within ICME sheaths, we see that these fluctuations are strongly coupled to the relative magnetic field strength gradient from the upstream solar wind to the ME. Third, we identify ME expansion as an important factor in the formation of sheaths. Finally, we determine the distortion parameter (DiP), which is a measure of magnetic field asymmetry in an ME. We discover lower overall asymmetries within MEs. We reveal that even for expanding MEs, the time duration over which an ME is sampled does not correlate with DiP values, indicating that the aging effect is not the sole contributor to the observed ME asymmetries.

Modeling of time profiles of solar energetic particle (SEP) observations often considers transport along a large-scale magnetic field with a fixed path length from the source to the observer. Here, we point out that variability in the turbulent field line path length can affect the fits to SEP data and the inferred mean free path and injection profile. To explore such variability, we perform Monte Carlo simulations in representations of homogeneous 2D MHD + slab turbulence adapted to spherical geometry and trace trajectories of field lines and full particle orbits, considering proton injection from a narrow or wide angular region near the Sun, corresponding to an impulsive or gradual solar event, respectively. We analyze our simulation results in terms of field line and particle path length statistics for 1° × 1° pixels in heliolatitude and heliolongitude at 0.35 and 1 au from the Sun, for different values of the turbulence amplitude b / B _0 and turbulence geometry as expressed by the slab fraction f _s . Maps of the most probable path lengths of field lines and particles at each pixel exhibit systematic patterns that reflect the fluctuation amplitudes experienced by the field lines, which in turn relate to the local topology of 2D turbulence. We describe the effects of such path length variations on SEP time profiles, both in terms of path length variability at specific locations and the motion of the observer with respect to turbulence topology during the course of the observations.

Using a global magnetohydrodynamics numerical simulation, this work compares the interaction of the solar wind with Mars and Earth from the perspective of energy transfer under north–south interplanetary magnetic fields (IMFs). Mars lacks a global dipole magnetic field like Earth’s and instead has a small-scale crustal magnetic field near highlands in the southern hemisphere. Unlike Earth’s magnetopause reconnection (at the subsolar point or tail under a southward IMF, or behind the cusp under a northward IMF), the reconnection of the Martian magnetic pileup boundary (MPB) occurs near solar zenith angle (SZA) ≈ 45° (SZA ≈ 30° and 60°) for a southward (northward) IMF, resulting in asymmetric energy transfer between the northern and southern hemispheres. The Martian outflow of mechanical energy appears near SZA ≈ 45° (SZA ≈ 30° and 60°) under a southward (northward) IMF, accompanied by an inflow due to the process of “solar wind pickup.” For energy transfer across the MPB, whether the IMF is northward or southward, the input of electromagnetic energy is twice as large as the input of mechanical energy, which is similar to Earth’s magnetopause for a southward IMF, but opposite to it for a northward IMF. The energy transfer rate of the MPB is slightly higher in a northward IMF than in a southward one, whereas the energy transfer rate of Earth’s magnetopause is far higher in a southward IMF than in a northward one.

Whistler-mode waves have been extensively observed and investigated in terrestrial space. In this study, we present the dynamic response of whistler-mode waves to different solar wind conditions in the dayside terrestrial space based on Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) data. Statistical results show that the occurrence rate, amplitudes, and corresponding electron temperature anisotropy of whistler-mode waves increase with P _sw in the dayside terrestrial space, which is attributed to the compression of magnetic fields in these magnetosheath and outer magnetosphere. Furthermore, whistler-mode waves under the southward interplanetary magnetic fields (IMFs) show a higher occurrence rate than that under the northward IMFs, mostly corresponding to T _e _⊥ / T _e _∥ > 1, and have a higher occurrence rate during quasi-radial IMFs. These results present that whistler-mode waves in these magnetosheath and outer magnetosphere are also modulated by the solar wind as clearly as the inner magnetosphere. This work advanced our understanding in the solar–terrestrial interaction.

The Wang–Sheeley–Arge (WSA) model has been in use for decades and remains a popular, economical approach to modeling the solar coronal magnetic field and forecasting conditions in the inner heliosphere. Given its usefulness, it is unsurprising that a number of WSA implementations have been developed by various groups with different computational approaches. While the WSA magnetic field model has traditionally been calculated using a spherical harmonic expansion of the solar magnetic field, finite-difference potential field solutions can offer speed and/or accuracy advantages. However, the creation of new versions of WSA requires that we ensure the solutions from these new models are consistent with established versions and that we quantify for the user community to what degree and in what ways they differ. In this paper, we present side-by-side comparisons of WSA models produced using the traditional, spherical harmonic–based implementation developed by Wang, Sheeley, and Arge with WSA models produced using a recently open-sourced finite-difference code from the CORHEL modeling suite called POT3D. We present comparisons of the terminal solar wind speed and magnetic field at the outer boundaries of the models, weighing these against the variation of the WSA model in the presence of small perturbations in the computational procedure, parameters, and inputs. We also compare the footpoints of magnetic field lines traced from the outer boundaries and the locations of open field in the models. We find that the traced field-line footpoints show remarkable agreement, with the greatest differences near the magnetic neutral line and in the polar regions.

We develop a preliminary interplanetary disturbance index ( J ${}_{{\rm{s}}}^{{\rm{W}}}$ ) by applying the spectral whitening method to an energy coupling function with solar wind measurements during the years 1998–2014 as the input, which can be used as an indicator of perturbations in the near-Earth solar wind. The correlation and temporal variation between J ${}_{{\rm{s}}}^{{\rm{W}}}$ and the geomagnetic disturbance index ( J ${}_{{\rm{p}}}^{{\rm{G}}}$ ) constructed from the same method have been analyzed in detail for 167 geomagnetic storms with the minimum D _st index less than or equal to −50 nT. The time delay between J ${}_{{\rm{s}}}^{{\rm{W}}}$ and J ${}_{{\rm{p}}}^{{\rm{G}}}$ is clearly observable and varies for different events, according to which J ${}_{{\rm{s}}}^{{\rm{W}}}$ is shifted backward with respect to J ${}_{{\rm{p}}}^{{\rm{G}}}$ . We obtain a fairly good negative correlation between the shifted J ${}_{{\rm{s}}}^{{\rm{W}}}$ and the J ${}_{{\rm{p}}}^{{\rm{G}}}$ indices for the majority of events, and the significance level for 88% of the events (i.e., 147 events) does not exceed 0.05. A statistical analysis of the shifted J ${}_{{\rm{s}}}^{{\rm{W}}}$ and the J ${}_{{\rm{p}}}^{{\rm{G}}}$ indices for 147 selected events reveals that larger values of J ${}_{{\rm{s}}}^{{\rm{W}}}$ and smaller magnitudes of J ${}_{{\rm{p}}}^{{\rm{G}}}$ are commonly accompanied by enhanced southward magnetic fields, which implies that more solar wind energy is entering the magnetosphere and thus causing strong geomagnetic storms. Furthermore, a linear fit of the two indices suggests that the evolution of J ${}_{{\rm{p}}}^{{\rm{G}}}$ can be predicted about 2 hr in advance based on J ${}_{{\rm{s}}}^{{\rm{W}}}$ , indicating that J ${}_{{\rm{s}}}^{{\rm{W}}}$ can provide early warnings of possible disturbances in the geomagnetic fields, which is crucial for space weather monitoring and operational forecasting.

Solar magnetic fields are closely related to various physical phenomena on the Sun, which can be extrapolated with different models from photospheric magnetograms. However, the open flux problem (OFP), the underestimation of the magnetic field derived from the extrapolated model, is still unsolved. To minimize the impact of the OFP, we propose three evaluation parameters to quantitatively evaluate magnetic field models and determine the optimal free parameters in the models by constraining the coronal magnetic fields and the interplanetary magnetic fields (IMFs) with real observations. Although the OFP still exists, we find that magnetic field lines traced from the coronal models effectively capture the intricate topological configurations observed in the corona, including streamers and plumes. The OFP is lessened by using the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager synoptic map instead of the Global Oscillation Network Group daily synoptic maps, and the potential field source surface + potential field current sheet (PFSS+PFCS) model instead of the current sheet source surface (CSSS) model. For Carrington Rotation 2231 at the solar minimum, we suggest that the optimal parameters for the PFSS+PFCS model are R _ss = 2.2–2.5 R _☉ and R _scs = 10.5–14.0 R _☉ , as well as for the CSSS model, are R _cs = 2.0–2.4 R _☉ , R _ss = 11.0–14.7 R _☉ , and a = 1.0 R _☉ . Despite the IMFs at 1 au being consistent with the measurements by artificially increasing the polar magnetic fields, the IMFs near the Sun are still underestimated. The OFP might be advanced by improving the accuracy of both the weak magnetic fields and polar magnetic fields, especially considering magnetic activities arising from interplanetary physical processes.

The INterplanetary Flux ROpe Simulator (INFROS) is an observationally constrained analytical model dedicated to forecasting the strength of the southward component ( Bz ) of the magnetic field embedded in interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs). In this work, we validate the model for six ICMEs sequentially observed by two radially aligned spacecraft positioned at different heliocentric distances. The six selected ICMEs in this study comprise cases associated with isolated coronal mass ejection (CME) evolution as well as those interacting with high-speed streams (HSSs) and high-density streams (HDSs). For the isolated CMEs, our results show that the model outputs at both spacecraft are in good agreement with in situ observations. However, for most of the interacting events, the model correctly captures the CME evolution only at the inner spacecraft. Due to the interaction with HSSs and HDSs, which in most cases occurred at heliocentric distances beyond the inner spacecraft, the ICME evolution no longer remains self-similar. Consequently, the model underestimates the field strength at the outer spacecraft. Our findings indicate that constraining the INFROS model with inner-spacecraft observations significantly enhances the prediction accuracy at the outer spacecraft for the three events undergoing self-similar expansion, achieving a 90% correlation between observed and predicted Bz profiles. This work also presents a quantitative estimation of the ICME magnetic field enhancement due to interaction which may lead to severe space weather. We conclude that the assumption of self-similar expansion provides a lower limit to the magnetic field strength estimated at any heliocentric distance, based on the remote-sensing observations.

Kelvin–Helmholtz waves can be observed frequently at the near-Earth magnetopause and play an important role in the transport of particles, momentum, and energy from the solar wind to the magnetosphere. This work analyzes the occurrence of Kelvin–Helmholtz instability (KHI) at lunar distance magnetopause, which has not been thoroughly studied currently based on Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence, and Electrodynamics of the Moon's Interaction with the Sun satellite observations, and it also investigates the effect of the upstream solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). Statistical results show that (1) the occurrence rate is about 15% of the time at lunar distance, lower than at the flank magnetopause, and (2) the occurrence rate decreases with the magnetoacoustic Mach number, Alfvén Mach number, solar wind velocity, and dynamic pressure but only shows a slightly positive correlation with solar wind density. Unlike at the dayside magnetopause, the occurrence rate of KHI diminishes as the solar wind velocity increases at the lunar distance magnetopause, and (3) the occurrence rate decreases with IMF amplitude and is influenced by IMF orientation. As a function of the IMF clock angle, the occurrence rate reaches its maximum at ∼24% when the clock angle is zero. The statistical results are basically consistent with the currently accepted linear theory of KHI, except for a lower rate for higher-speed solar wind. This work contributes to understanding the excitation and evolution of KHI along the magnetopause and plasma transport process in the tail magnetopause.

Detecting large-scale flux ropes (FRs) embedded in interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) and assessing their geoeffectiveness are essential, since they can drive severe space weather. At 1 au, these FRs have an average duration of 1 day. Their most common magnetic features are large, smoothly rotating magnetic fields. Their manual detection has become a relatively common practice over decades, although visual detection can be time-consuming and subject to observer bias. Our study proposes a pipeline that utilizes two supervised binary classification machine-learning models trained with solar wind magnetic properties to automatically detect large-scale FRs and additionally determine their geoeffectiveness. The first model is used to generate a list of autodetected FRs. Using the properties of the southward magnetic field, the second model determines the geoeffectiveness of FRs. Our method identifies 88.6% and 80% of large-scale ICMEs (duration ≥ 1 day) observed at 1 au by the Wind and the Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory missions, respectively. While testing with continuous solar wind data obtained from Wind, our pipeline detected 56 of the 64 large-scale ICMEs during the 2008–2014 period (recall = 0.875), but also many false positives (precision = 0.56), as we do not take into account any additional solar wind properties other than the magnetic properties. We find an accuracy of 0.88 when estimating the geoeffectiveness of the autodetected FRs using our method. Thus, in space-weather nowcasting and forecasting at L1 or any planetary missions, our pipeline can be utilized to offer a first-order detection of large-scale FRs and their geoeffectiveness.

This study presents the first comprehensive investigation of the relationship between heating and cooling, temperature anisotropy, turbulence level, and collisional age within interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME) sheaths, which are highly compressed, heated, and turbulent. Using Wind spacecraft data, we analyze 333 ICME sheaths observed at 1 au from 1995 to 2015. The proton temperature within the ICME sheaths has a log-normal probability distribution. Irrespective of instability growth rates, plasma unstable to proton-cyclotron (PC) and firehose instabilities appear to be statistically hotter, at least by a factor of 5 to 10, compared to stable plasma. We also observe relatively enhanced magnetic fluctuations and low collisional age, especially in regimes unstable to PC and firehose instabilities at low proton betas β _p ≤ 2. In the case of high beta β _p ≥ 2, we observe high magnetic fluctuations close to the instabilities and less collisional age to the plasma unstable to firehose instability rather than near the mirror mode and PC threshold. Our findings suggest that heating processes dominate over cooling processes in producing proton temperature anisotropy in the ICME sheath region. Moreover, collisional age and magnetic fluctuations are critical in maintaining anisotropic and isotropic conditions.

The recent superstorm of 2024 May 10–11 is the second largest geomagnetic storm in the space age and the only one that has simultaneous interplanetary data (there were no interplanetary data for the 1989 March storm). The May superstorm was characterized by a sudden impulse (SI ^+ ) amplitude of +88 nT, followed by a three-step storm main-phase development, which had a total duration of ∼9 hr. The cause of the first storm main phase with a peak SYM-H intensity of −183 nT was a fast-forward interplanetary shock (magnetosonic Mach number M _ms ∼ 7.2) and an interplanetary sheath with a southward interplanetary magnetic field component B _s of ∼40 nT. The cause of the second storm's main phase with an SYM-H intensity of −354 nT was a deepening of the sheath B _s to ∼43 nT. A magnetosonic wave ( M _ms ∼ 0.6) compressed the sheath to a high magnetic field strength of ∼71 nT. Intensified B _s of ∼48 nT were the cause of the third and most intense storm main phase, with an SYM-H intensity of −518 nT. Three magnetic cloud events with B _s fields of ∼25–40 nT occurred in the storm recovery phase, lengthening the recovery to ∼2.8 days. At geosynchronous orbit, ∼76 keV to ∼1.5 MeV electrons exhibited ∼1–3 orders of magnitude flux decreases following the shock/sheath impingement onto the magnetosphere. The cosmic-ray decreases at Dome C, Antarctica (effective vertical cutoff rigidity

In this study, we utilize magnetic field data from the Juno mission’s cruise phase to visually identify and analyze 338 interplanetary small flux ropes (SFRs) across a heliocentric distance range of 1–5.5 au. The events are uniformly distributed across heliocentric distances, showing no clear trend. Through superposed epoch analysis, we find that the average SFR magnetic field profiles are symmetric and show little variation across the observed heliocentric distances. Additionally, we observe a slight increasing trend in the mean duration of SFRs, indicating minimal expansion during propagation. Furthermore, we determine that the SFR mean magnetic field dependence on distance is best fit by two separate power laws, exhibiting a steeper decay from 1 to ∼2.1 au and a shallower decay from ∼2.1 to 5.5 au. Near 1 au, the statistical decay rate of the mean magnetic field magnitude of SFRs is slightly higher than that of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF), suggesting that SFRs may become indistinguishable from the IMF over time. This finding implies that SFRs detected at greater radial distances are possibly generated in situ as opposed to near the Sun. However, only ∼26% of the total population of SFRs in our catalog occurs within 1 day from the heliospheric current sheet (HCS), indicating a very limited association between the occurrence of the majority of SFRs and the presence of the HCS. These results raise questions about the origin of SFRs detected at larger distances, encouraging further exploration for alternatives to the conventional generation mechanisms.

We have investigated how the degree of imbalance in solar wind turbulence is modified by large-scale velocity shears in the solar wind plasma. The balance between counterpropagating Alfvénic fluctuations, which interact nonlinearly to generate the turbulence, has been quantified by the cross helicity and Elsasser ratio. Velocity shears at a 30 minute timescale were identified, with the shear amplitude defined in terms of the linear Kelvin–Helmholtz (KH) instability threshold. The shears were associated with 74 interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME) sheaths observed by the Wind spacecraft at 1 au between 1997 and 2018. Typically weaker shears upstream of the sheaths and downstream in the ICME ejecta were also analyzed. In shears below the KH threshold, imbalance was approximately invariant or weakly rising with shear amplitude. Above the KH threshold, fluctuations tended toward a balanced state with increasing shear amplitude. Magnetic compressibility was also found to increase above the KH threshold. These findings are consistent with velocity shears being local sources of sunward fluctuations that act to reduce net imbalances in the antisunward direction, and suggest that the KH instability plays a role in this process.

Since its launch in 2018, the Parker Solar Probe (PSP) mission revealed the presence of numerous fascinating phenomena occurring closer to the Sun, such as the presence of ubiquitous switchbacks (SBs). The SBs are large magnetic field deflections of the local magnetic field relative to a background field. We investigated the statistical properties of the SBs during the first 10 encounters between 13.28 and 58 solar radii ( R _⊙ ) using data from the SWEAP and FIELDS suites on board PSP. We find that the occurrence percentage of small deflections with respect to the Parker spiral decreases with radial distance ( R ). In contrast, the occurrence percentage of the large deflections (SBs) increases with R , as does the SB patches. We also find that the occurrence of SBs correlates with the bulk velocity of the solar wind, i.e., the higher the solar wind velocity, the higher the SB occurrence. For V _sw ≤ 400 km s ^−1 , the SB occurrence percentage shows a constantly increasing trend between 13 and 58 R _⊙ . However, for V _sw > 400 km s ^−1 , the occurrence percentage saturates beyond 35 R _⊙ . The occurrence percentage of mini SB patches (200 s) increases with R . Sub-Alfvénic regions that we analyzed during Encounters 8–10 have not shown any SBs. This analysis of the PSP data hints that some of the SBs are decaying and some are being created in situ.

Prior to the Voyagers’ heliopause crossings, models and the community expected the magnetic field to show major rotations across the boundary. Surprisingly, the field showed no significant change in direction from the heliospheric Parker Spiral at either Voyager location. Meanwhile, a major result from the IBEX mission is the derived magnitude and direction of the interstellar field far from the Sun (∼1000 au) beyond the influence of the heliosphere. Using a self-consistent model fit to IBEX ribbon data, Zirnstein et al. reported that this “pristine” local interstellar magnetic field has a magnitude of 0.293 nT and direction of 227° in ecliptic longitude and 34.°6 in ecliptic latitude. These values differ by 27% (51%) and 44° (12°) from what Voyager 1 (2) currently observes (as of ∼2022.75). While differences are to be expected as the field undrapes away from the heliosphere, the global structure of the draping across hundreds of astronimcal units has not been reconciled. This leads to several questions: How are these distinct sets of observations reconcilable? What is the interstellar magnetic field’s large-scale structure? How far out would a future mission need to go to sample the unperturbed field? Here, we show that if realistic errors are included for the difficult-to-calibrate radial field component, the measured transverse field is consistent with that predicted by IBEX, allowing us to answer these questions through a unified picture of the behavior of the local interstellar magnetic field from its draping around the heliopause to its unfolding into the pristine interstellar medium.

Interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) have low proton beta across a broad range of heliocentric distances and a magnetic flux rope structure at large scales, making them a unique environment for studying solar wind fluctuations. Power spectra of magnetic field fluctuations in 28 ICMEs observed between 0.25 and 0.95 au by Solar Orbiter and Parker Solar Probe have been examined. At large scales, the spectra were dominated by power contained in the flux ropes. Subtraction of the background flux rope fields increased the mean spectral index from −5/3 to −3/2 at kd _i ≤ 10 ^−3 . Rope subtraction also revealed shorter correlation lengths in the magnetic field. The spectral index was typically near −5/3 in the inertial range at all radial distances regardless of rope subtraction and steepened to values consistently below −3 with transition to kinetic scales. The high-frequency break point terminating the inertial range evolved approximately linearly with radial distance and was closer in scale to the proton inertial length than the proton gyroscale, as expected for plasma at low proton beta. Magnetic compressibility at inertial scales did not show any significant correlation with radial distance, in contrast to the solar wind generally. In ICMEs, the distinctive spectral properties at injection scales appear mostly determined by the global flux rope structure while transition-kinetic properties are more influenced by the low proton beta; the intervening inertial range appears independent of both ICME features, indicative of a system-independent scaling of the turbulence.

Mars’s magnetosphere is hybrid, having contributions from both an induced magnetosphere like Venus and the localized crustal magnetic fields. However, the planetary fields also include large-scale, more global components. In this study, we investigate their role in Mars’s magnetospheric topological responses to the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) clock angle using observations from the Mars Atmospheric Volatile and EvolutioN mission. We show that the large-scale planetary field has a “dipole-like” influence on the Mars global magnetosphere by examining the open field topology. We find that the “dipole-like” planetary field, as at Earth, results in a more open magnetosphere during southward IMF. The clock angle effects on the twisted magnetotail current sheet are similarly consistent with this analogy. It reinforces the idea that Mars’s magnetosphere and solar wind interaction are more Earth-like than previously thought.

The intermittency in the solar wind turbulence manifests itself in the anisotropic scaling due to the anisotropic spectral index and the intermittent level based on the extended P model. However, the influence of intermittency on the energy transfer rate remains unclear. Here we apply the partial variance of increments method to identify the intermittency for the magnetic field measurements in the fast solar wind from the Ulysses spacecraft. We distinguish the sampling direction using the angle θ _RB between the local magnetic field and radial direction to study the anisotropy. We perform the multiorder structure function analyses and adopt the log-Poisson cascade model to describe the role of intermittency in the cascade process. We find that the anisotropy of the scaling becomes isotropic with a complete removal of intermittency. We compare explicitly the anisotropy of the energy transfer rate before and after removing the intermittency for the same interval for the first time. We find a distinct anisotropy with a cascade enhancement in the direction perpendicular to the local magnetic field. The removal of the intermittency greatly weakens the anisotropy by mainly reducing the perpendicular energy transfer rate. Our findings suggest that the intermittency effectively enhances the energy transfer rate, in particular in the perpendicular direction in the solar wind turbulence.

Interstellar neutral atoms enter the heliosphere at a relatively slow speed corresponding to the motion of the Sun through the local interstellar medium, which is approximately 25 km s ^−1 . Neutral hydrogen atoms enter from the approximate location of the Voyager spacecraft and are eventually ionized primarily by collision with thermal solar wind ions. An earlier analysis by Hollick et al. examined low-frequency magnetic waves observed by the Voyager spacecraft from launch through 1990 that are thought to arise from the scattering of newborn interstellar pickup H ^+ and He ^+ . We report an analysis of Voyager 1 observations in 1991, which is the last year of high-resolution magnetic field data that are publicly available, and find 70 examples of low-frequency waves with the characteristics that suggest excitation by pickup H ^+ and 10 examples of waves consistent with excitation by pickup He ^+ . We find a particularly dense cluster of observations at the tail end of what is thought to be a Merged Interaction Region (MIR) that was previously studied by Burlaga & Ness using Voyager 2 observations. This is not unexpected if the MIR is followed by a large rarefaction region, as they tend to be regions of reduced turbulence levels that permit the growth of the waves over the long time periods that are generally required of this instability.

The dominance of the global over the relative, cross-field transport of magnetic field lines (MFLs), up to scales of a couple of hours in the solar wind (SW), has been predicted both theoretically and numerically, in the approximation of self-similar, single-level power spectra of magnetic fluctuations. Here the predictions for the MFL relative cross-field transport or dispersal are tested against the results of in situ data analysis, using 23 yr of field and flow measurements on board ACE and Wind. The theoretical results are confirmed/refined by nonlinear theoretical computations and corrected to include the effects of power-level variability or intermittency. Other than confirming earlier theoretical findings at the separation scales ρ between a few ×10 ^10 cm and the large-separation limit, with a ballistic regime followed by decorrelation and transition to diffusion in the $(\mathrm{ln}\rho ,\theta )$ -space, the new study reveals two new supradiffusive regimes in $\mathrm{ln}\rho $ and clock angle θ for the MFL dispersal, distinct from a drift-induced supradiffusion found earlier, and distinct from each other. The first supradiffusion, of the nonlinear computations, is a simple nonlinear effect, which cannot be recovered by data analysis at two spacecraft of fixed separation on the analysis timescale. The second supradiffusion, of the data analysis, is much stronger for ρ < few × 10 ^10 cm than the two previous supradiffusions, and it becomes stronger at shorter separations. It follows the ballistic regime without transition through diffusion and is recovered by multiscale, theoretical estimates. It is a Lévy-type supradiffusion, due to the intermittency observed in the SW.

Dust clouds are ubiquitous in the atmospheres of hot Jupiters and affect their observable properties. The alignment of dust grains in the clouds and resulting dust polarization provide a promising way to study the magnetic fields of exoplanets. Moreover, the grain size distribution plays an important role in the physical and chemical processes in the atmospheres, which are rather uncertain. In this paper, we first study the grain alignment of dust grains in the atmospheres of hot Jupiters by radiative torques (RATs). We find that silicate grains can be aligned by RATs with the magnetic fields ( B − RAT) due to the strong magnetic fields of hot Jupiters, but carbonaceous grains of diamagnetic material tend to be aligned with the radiation direction ( k − RAT). At a low altitude of r < 2 R _p , where R _p is the planet radius, only large grains can be aligned, but tiny grains of a ∼ 0.01 μ m can be aligned at a high altitude of r > 3 R _p . We then study the rotational disruption of dust grains by the RAT disruption (RAT-D) mechanism. We find that large grains can be disrupted by RAT-D into smaller sizes. Grains of high tensile strength are disrupted at an altitude of r > 3 R _p , but grains of low tensile strength can be disrupted at a lower altitude. We suggest that the disruption of large grains into smaller ones can facilitate dust clouds escaping to high altitudes due to lower gravity and may explain the presence of high-altitude clouds in hot Jupiters, as well as superpuff atmospheres.