A Solar Wind Mystery

Credit: Maile Marriott

When solar winds blast out from the sun’s corona, the result can be eye-catching: The aurora borealis results from this space weather’s interactions with our atmosphere. Physics graduate student Maile Marriott works to understand the solar wind that also unfortunately, can cause disruptions in satellites, interference with radio signals and even electromagnetic pulses that can affect infrastructure. Marriott’s research explores a phenomenon in the solar wind called a switchback, where magnetic field lines reverse direction and kink. Understanding switchbacks can help shed light on causes of turbulence and heating in solar winds.