All articles tagged with #kelvin helmholtz instability
Using the world’s largest solar telescope, astronomers captured the Sun’s visible surface at unprecedented resolution, revealing vortices as small as about 12 miles wide at the edges of solar granules and linking them to Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities driven by convection and magnetic fields, shedding light on the dynamic processes shaping the Sun’s photosphere.
New DKIST observations reveal ubiquitous magnetized Kelvin–Helmholtz instabilities at the edges of magnetic flux concentrations in the solar photosphere, confirming long-standing theory. The vortices and stripe-like features seen in 416 nm filtergrams closely match 3D radiation-MHD MURaM simulations, showing KHIs generate strong shear at magnetic boundaries, drive turbulence, and enable plasma and magnetic-field mixing across multiple vertical layers. The analysis yields KHI wavelengths of roughly 50–70 km (with a 25–170 km observed range), growth rates ~0.01–0.05 s−1, and apparent phase speeds of ~0.7–3 km s−1, implying KHIs contribute to flux transport and magnetic-field braiding in the Sun’s magnetized atmosphere.
Scientists using Hawaii's Inouye Solar Telescope captured the Sun's surface in the highest-resolution images yet, showing swirling vortices that twist magnetic energy and drive space weather that can affect Earth’s power grids and satellites; the observations, published in Nature, help explain energy transport in the Sun and could improve weather forecasting.
A new high-resolution video of the sun’s surface captured by the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope shows turbulent, vortex-like plasma structures, supporting Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities and offering clues about solar magnetic energy and coronal heating.
Physicists have observed the quantum Kelvin-Helmholtz instability in superfluid lithium gases, revealing exotic crescent-shaped vortices called eccentric fractional skyrmions, which resemble patterns in Van Gogh's 'Starry Night' and could impact future quantum technologies and our understanding of topological phenomena.
A moderate to strong geomagnetic storm is predicted for Sunday night, May 7, which could result in a great northern lights show visible as far south as northern Iowa. An app called Windy.com can help identify clear patches of sky for viewing. Spring and fall are the best times to see the northern lights due to the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, which creates unique clouds that accelerate electrons to high speeds into the upper atmosphere where they spur auroras. The instability occurs when waves of charged particles from the sun crash into Earth's magnetic field around the time of the equinoxes.