EARTH CHANGES
Magnetic Field in Solar Wind Found to Reverse Its Spin at a Certain Scale
An international team reports that turbulent plasma sampled by the Parker Solar Probe changes its direction of magnetic rotation, and that the point of change drifts with distance from the Sun.
NEAR THE SUN — Researchers in ten countries have reported a previously unnoticed reversal in the way magnetic fields rotate within turbulent space plasma, according to a paper in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, as relayed by The Debrief.
The team studied magnetic-field and particle measurements gathered by NASA's Parker Solar Probe. Their analysis, the report says, showed that turbulent magnetic fluctuations reverse their sense of rotation at a particular wavelength. That wavelength is not fixed: the farther the plasma lies from the Sun, the longer the wavelength at which the reversal takes place.
The article describes the change as coinciding with a shift in character. At larger scales the plasma behaves like a fluid, and the fields tend to rotate counterclockwise. At smaller scales it behaves in a particle-like manner, and the fields rotate clockwise.
"We see a clear structure in the spectrum, even though the turbulence represents unstructured motions," said first author Dr. Masatomi Iizawa of TU Braunschweig. Co-author Nobumitsu Yokoi of the University of Tokyo called the results of great significance for plasma physics and astrophysics.
The report notes that such turbulence bears on space weather, which can trouble satellites, communications, navigation and power infrastructure. It adds a note of caution, however: the finding does not immediately translate into better forecasts, though it offers a clearer picture of how energy and magnetic fluctuations behave across scales. The paper, titled "Nonlocal Evolution of Magnetic Helicity across the Magnetohydrodynamic–Kinetic Interface," appeared on October 9, 2026.