What happened
Researchers led by the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), an autonomous institute under the Department of Science and Technology, have found evidence that the Sun’s slow poleward plasma flow continues much higher into the solar atmosphere than earlier confirmed. The finding matters because the flow is linked to the Sun’s magnetic field, the 11-year solar cycle, and the space weather that can affect satellites, communication systems, navigation networks, and power grids on Earth.
Background and earlier position
Scientists have long known about the Sun’s meridional flow, a slow movement of hot gas, or plasma, from the equator toward the poles. Before this study, that flow had been observed only in the Sun’s lower atmospheric layers. The new study extends the evidence into the upper atmosphere and strengthens the idea that the Sun’s surface and upper layers remain connected through magnetic structures.
What changed now
The research team, which also included scientists from the Physical Research Laboratory, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, analysed 27 years of radio observations from the Nobeyama Radioheliograph in Japan. The team used a novel image-correlation method on thousands of full-disk radio images taken one day apart to measure tiny shifts in brightness patterns over nearly three decades.
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