Overview
- The peer-reviewed study, published on October 24 in Nature Astronomy, was led by Richard Morton of Northumbria University with collaborators in the UK, China, Belgium, and the United States.
- Researchers used the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope during instrument testing and introduced methods to remove dominant kink motions, exposing subtle torsional signals.
- Spectroscopy of highly ionized iron at roughly 1.6 million degrees Celsius showed alternating red and blue shifts on opposite sides of coronal magnetic structures.
- The waves provide a plausible continuous energy source for coronal heating and a candidate contributor to the solar wind, informing improvements to space‑weather models.
- The findings may help explain Parker Solar Probe magnetic switchbacks and offer validation points for Alfvén-wave turbulence theories, with further DKIST observations planned to trace propagation and dissipation.