Parker Solar Probe observations have linked patches of solar-wind switchbacks to magnetic funnels rooted near the Sun’s visible surface. That gives scientists a likely place to look for where at least some switchbacks begin. It does not explain how they form. NASA still lists plasma waves and magnetic reconnection as competing candidate mechanisms.
What a switchback is
A switchback is a short-lived reversal or sharp bend in the magnetic field carried outward by the solar wind, the continuous stream of charged particles flowing from the Sun through the solar system. NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio illustrates one such event as a change in field direction of almost 180 degrees, in its visualization “Parker Solar Probe: The Origins of Switchbacks.” The name describes the shape of the field line, which folds back on itself like the turn of a switchback road.
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What Parker Solar Probe found
Parker Solar Probe flies through the inner solar wind, where switchbacks turned out to be common. That prompted the question of where they originate. NASA’s 2021 account of the mission, “NASA Enters the Solar Atmosphere for the First Time, Bringing New Discoveries,” describes data from Parker’s sixth solar flyby, taken less than 25 solar radii from the Sun. In that data, the switchback patches contained a higher percentage of helium than other elements. The patches also aligned with magnetic funnels emerging from the photosphere between supergranules, the large convection cells of plasma that cover the Sun’s surface.
NASA’s reading of this is specific. The observation narrowed the source of these patches to the region near the solar surface. It did not confirm which process produces the structures. The helium signature and the funnel alignment are what make this a source-region clue, not a description of how switchbacks form.
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What the finding does not settle
Locating a source region is not the same as explaining the process behind it. NASA’s accounts name two candidate explanations and do not choose between them.
| Candidate explanation | Status in NASA’s accounts | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Plasma waves | Named as a candidate mechanism. Not confirmed as the cause. | NASA, 2021 account |
| Magnetic reconnection | Named as a candidate mechanism. Not confirmed as the cause. | NASA, 2021 account |
| Formation near magnetic-funnel boundaries | Not stated as a confirmed process. The funnel association is observed; how the funnels produce the reversals is not. | NASA, 2021 account |
NASA’s April 29, 2022 mission summary, “Amazing Achievements From Parker Solar Probe,” says that measurements from the spacecraft’s FIELDS instrument linked switchbacks to magnetic funnels and describes how they form as an active area of research. The same account gives no formation mechanism beyond the candidates above.
Three points are established in NASA’s accounts. Switchbacks are common in the inner solar wind. Switchback patches seen in the close encounter carry elevated helium and align with funnels near the surface. FIELDS measurements tie switchbacks to those funnels. Three points are not established. The accounts do not say whether waves or reconnection produce switchbacks. They do not say whether every switchback comes from the same kind of source. And they do not present the funnel link as proof of a causal mechanism.
The jetlet study is a separate claim
A January 10, 2023 NASA report, “NASA Missions Find ‘Jetlets’ Could Power the Solar Wind,” covers a different question. It reports that observations from Parker Solar Probe and multiple space- and ground-based observatories indicate that small-scale jets at the base of the corona, called jetlets, could help fuel the solar wind. NASA describes each jetlet as a few hundred miles long. It also says the researchers calculated that the combined energy and mass of jetlets could supply most, if not all, of what is observed in the solar wind.
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Read that as a study proposal and an estimate as NASA reports it, not as settled consensus. The paper itself is not linked here, so the energy and mass figures are NASA’s summary of the researchers’ calculation. The paper was motivated by switchback observations, but it does not identify where switchback source patches are. Jetlets and switchback sources are two separate claims.
NASA’s report quotes the researchers directly. Nour Raouafi, Parker Solar Probe project scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory and lead of the jetlet study, said: “This new data shows us how the solar wind gets going at its source.” Judy Karpen, a NASA Goddard heliophysicist and coauthor, said: “Previously, we could not detect enough such events to explain the observed amount of mass and energy streaming from the Sun.” Craig DeForest, a solar physicist at the Southwest Research Institute and coauthor of the jetlet paper, said: “We’re not finished with the puzzle yet, but this is a major step forward for understanding a central mystery of solar physics.”
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