In our solar system, a hot, million-degree wind blows off the Sun at colossal speeds reaching millions of miles per hour, washing over the planets. The Earth’s magnetic field protects us by deflecting this wind, but other planetary bodies in the solar system have been exposed to its influence – for example, the Sun’s wind is known to have stripped Mars of its atmosphere. 

The Sun loses over 10 trillion tonnes of material each year through its winds, so we are also interested in finding out how these winds contribute to a star’s evolution, and how they might influence the habitability of exoplanets around other Sun-like stars.

Magnetic waves, also known as Alfvén waves, can transfer energy through a star’s atmosphere and are considered an important feature of any magnetic star.

The RiPSAW project will use new methods drawn from statistics and machine learning to analyse high quality data of the Sun from state-of-the-art solar instruments, such as NASA’s Solar Dynamic Observatory, NCAR/HAO's Coronal Multi-Channel Polarimeter and NSO's DKIST. The project will be undertaken in collaboration with scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, National Solar Observatory, KU Leuven, Peking University and others.

Related Publications

• Morton and Soler (2025) On the Origins of Coronal Alfvénic Waves ApJ L

•  Morton et al.  (2025) Estimating the Poynting Flux of Alfv{\'e}nic Waves in Polar Coronal Holes across Solar Cycle 24 ApJ

• Duckenfield et al. (2025) , Determining the Polarization of a Coronal Standing Kink Oscillation Using Spectral Imaging Techniques with CoMP ApJ

• Morton et al. (2025) High-frequency Coronal Alfv{\'e}nic Waves Observed with DKIST/Cryo-NIRSP ApJ

• Tajfirouze et al. (2025 )Turbulent Suppression of Alfv{\'e}nic Wave Resonances in Coronal Loops ApJ

• Tajfirouze et al. (2025) Hinode/EIS Observation of the Alfv{\'e}nic Fluctuations in the Quiet Sun ApJ

•  Miriyala et al. (2025) The Coronal Power Spectrum from MHD Mode Conversion above Sunspots ApJ

• Yang et al. (2024) Observing the evolution of the Sun's global coronal magnetic field over 8 months Science

• Jafarzadeh et al. (2024) Sausage, kink, and fluting magnetohydrodynamic wave modes identified in solar magnetic pores by Solar Orbiter/PHI A&A

•  Morton (2024) The Solar Corona - Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Physics

• Kuniyoshi et al. (2024) Can the Solar p-modes Contribute to the High-frequency Transverse Oscillations of Spicules? ApJ

• Morton et al (2023) Alfv{\'e}nic waves in the inhomogeneous solar atmosphere - Reviews of Modern Plasma Physics 

• Sharma and Morton (2023) Transverse energy injection scales at the base of the solar corona - Nature Astronomy

• Morton and Cunningham (2023) The Fine-scale Structure of Polar Coronal Holes ApJ

• Lim et al. (2023) The Role of High-frequency Transverse Oscillations in Coronal Heating ApJL

• West et al. (2023) Defining the Middle Corona Solar Physics

• Scullion et al. (2022) SULIS: A coronal magnetism explorer for ESA's Voyage 2050 Experimental Astronomy 

•  Peter et al. (2022) Parallel Plasma Loops and the Energization of the Solar Corona ApJ

• Morton et al. (2021) Weak Damping of Propagating MHD Kink Waves in the Quiescent Corona ApJ

• Tiwari et al (2021)  A Statistical Study of Propagating MHD Kink Waves in the Quiescent Corona ApJ

• Davenport et al. (2021) A Theory of Change for Improving Children's Perceptions, Aspirations and Uptake of STEM Careers - Research in Science Education

• Rast et al. (2021) Critical Science Plan for the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST)} Solar Physics

• Morton et al. (2021) Transverse motions in sunspot super-penumbral fibrils - Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series A