Causality in heliophysics: Magnetic fields as a bridge between the Sun’s interior and the Earth’s space environment

Authors: Nandy, D., Baruah, Y., Bhowmik, P., Dash, S., Gupta, S., Hazra, S., Lekshmi, B., Pal, S., Pal, S., Roy, S., Saha, C. and Sinha, S.

Our host star, the Sun, is a middle-aged main sequence G type star whose activity varies. These variations are primarily governed by solar magnetic fields which are produced in the Sun’s interior via a magnetohydrodynamic dynamo mechanism. Solar activity manifests across different timescales, spanning transient phenomena such as flares, energetic particle events and coronal mass ejections to short to long-term modulation of solar irradiance, plasma winds, open flux and cosmic ray flux in the heliosphere. Collectively, these phenomena define space weather and space climate, which impact the state of the near-Earth space environment, the Earth’s magnetosphere, atmosphere and our space-reliant technologies. Understanding physical processes that are at the heart of solar variability and which causally connect the Sun–Earth system is therefore of immense importance to humanity. Such understanding leads to predictions of the impact of solar activity on our planet and provides a window to explore the plasma universe and other star–planet systems, including assessing the habitability of (exo)planets. In this review, based on our research on the solar–terrestrial system and extant scientific literature, we illuminate processes related to the genesis of solar magnetic fields in the Sun’s interior, their emergence and evolution, their manifestation as solar eruptive events, and their eventual impact on the geospace environment mediated via solar winds and storms. We focus on few phenomena that establish causal connections and demonstrate how our current understanding can lead to development of predictive capabilities encompassing the domain of heliophysics.

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Recommended citation: Nandy, D. et al., 2023. Causality in heliophysics: Magnetic fields as a bridge between the Sun’s interior and the Earth’s space environment. Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics, p.106081., DOI