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The Slow Solar Wind Connection Solar Orbiter Observing Plan (Slow Wind SOOP) was developed to utilise the extensive suite of remote sensing and in situ instruments on board the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter mission to answer significant outstanding questions regarding the origin and formation of the slow solar wind. The Slow Wind SOOP was designed to link remote sensing and in situ measurements of slow wind originating at open-closed field boundaries. The SOOP ran just prior to Solar Orbiter's first close perihelion passage during two remote sensing windows (RSW1 and RSW2) between 2022 March 3-6 and 2022 March 17-22, while Solar Orbiter was at a heliocentric distance of 0.55-0.51 and 0.38-0.34 au from the Sun, respectively. Coordinated observation campaigns were also conducted by Hinode and IRIS. The magnetic connectivity tool was used, along with low latency in situ data, and full-disk remote sensing observations, to guide the target pointing of Solar Orbiter. Solar Orbiter targeted an active region complex during RSW1, the boundary of a coronal hole, and the periphery of a decayed active region during RSW2. Post-observation analysis using the magnetic connectivity tool along with in situ measurements from MAG and SWA/PAS, show that slow solar wind, with velocities between 210 and 600 km/s, arrived at the spacecraft originating from two out of the three of the target regions. The Slow Wind SOOP, despite presenting many challenges, was very successful, providing a blueprint for planning future observation campaigns that rely on the magnetic connectivity of Solar Orbiter., Comment: 24 pages, 10 figures

The origin of the slow solar wind is still an open issue. One possibility that has been suggested is that upflows at the edge of an active region can contribute to the slow solar wind. We aim to explain how the plasma upflows are generated, which mechanisms are responsible for them, and what the upflow region topology looks like. We investigated an upflow region using imaging data with the unprecedented temporal (3s) and spatial (2 pixels = 236km) resolution that were obtained on 30 March 2022 with the 174{\AA} of the Extreme-Ultraviolet Imager (EUI)/High Resolution Imager (HRI) on board Solar Orbiter. During this time, the EUI and Earth-orbiting satellites (Solar Dynamics Observatory, Hinode, and the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, IRIS) were located in quadrature (92 degrees), which provides a stereoscopic view with high resolution. We used the Hinode/EIS (Fe XII) spectroscopic data to find coronal upflow regions in the active region. The IRIS slit-jaw imager provides a high-resolution view of the transition region and chromosphere. For the first time, we have data that provide a quadrature view of a coronal upflow region with high spatial resolution. We found extended loops rooted in a coronal upflow region. Plasma upflows at the footpoints of extended loops determined spectroscopically through the Doppler shift are similar to the apparent upward motions seen through imaging in quadrature. The dynamics of small-scale structures in the upflow region can be used to identify two mechanisms of the plasma upflow: Mechanism I is reconnection of the hot coronal loops with open magnetic field lines in the solar corona, and mechanism II is reconnection of the small chromospheric loops with open magnetic field lines in the chromosphere or transition region. We identified the locations in which mechanisms I and II work., Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in A&A; manuscript is a part of Astronomy & Astrophysics special issue: Solar Orbiter First Results (Nominal Mission Phase)

We study here the phenomena of decayless kink oscillations in a system of active region (AR) coronal loops. Using high resolution observations from two different instruments, namely the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) on board Solar Orbiter and the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory, we follow these AR loops for an hour each on three consecutive days. Our results show significantly more resolved decayless waves in the higher-resolution EUI data compared with the AIA data. Furthermore, the same system of loops exhibits many of these decayless oscillations on Day-2, while on Day-3, we detect very few oscillations and on Day-1, we find none at all. Analysis of photospheric magnetic field data reveals that at most times, these loops were rooted in sunspots, where supergranular flows are generally absent. This suggests that supergranular flows, which are often invoked as drivers of decayless waves, are not necessarily driving such oscillations in our observations. Similarly, our findings also cast doubt on other possible drivers of these waves, such as a transient driver or mode conversion of longitudinal waves near the loop footpoints. In conclusion, through our analysis we find that none of the commonly suspected sources proposed to drive decayless oscillations in active region loops seems to be operating in this event and hence, the search for that elusive wave driver needs to continue., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A Letters. Event movies can be downloaded from https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1IFH17oBwJuz2U5zR4Ds_Y4oU5ZQCaVbR?usp=sharing

Switchbacks are sudden, large radial deflections of the solar wind magnetic field, widely revealed in interplanetary space by the Parker Solar Probe. The switchbacks' formation mechanism and sources are still unresolved, although candidate mechanisms include Alfv\'enic turbulence, shear-driven Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities, interchange reconnection, and geometrical effects related to the Parker spiral. This Letter presents observations from the Metis coronagraph onboard Solar Orbiter of a single large propagating S-shaped vortex, interpreted as first evidence of a switchback in the solar corona. It originated above an active region with the related loop system bounded by open-field regions to the East and West. Observations, modeling, and theory provide strong arguments in favor of the interchange reconnection origin of switchbacks. Metis measurements suggest that the initiation of the switchback may also be an indicator of the origin of slow solar wind.