Switchback Patches Evolve into Microstreams via Magnetic Relaxation

Abstract Switchbacks, defined as Alfvénic reversals in magnetic field polarity, can dissipate their magnetic energy with heliocentric distance. To further investigate this, two distinct solar wind parcels tracing back to a similar solar source region were examined during a radial alignment between Parker Solar Probe (@25.8RS) and Solar Orbiter (@152RS). The one caveat was that the two probes were located on opposite sides of the heliospheric current sheet during the alignment. The two parcels contained a multitude of switchbacks—the parcel closer to the Sun was characterized as a switchback patch (SBP), where background proton velocity ( v p ) is comparable to the pristine solar wind ( v sw ), while the parcel farther from the Sun showed characteristics attributable to a microstream (MS; v p > v sw ). It was found that (1) MS contains, on average, 30% fewer switchbacks than SBP, and (2) dynamic and thermal pressures decreased by up to 20% across switchback boundaries in SBP and relatively unchanged in MS. Magnetic relaxation can explain the lower number of switchbacks in MS compared to SBP. Switchback relaxation inside SBP can, in turn, accelerate plasma inside SBP over time and heliocentric distance, thus resulting in v p > v sw in MS. Therefore, it is hypothesized that magnetic relaxation of switchbacks may cause SBPs to evolve into MSs over time and heliocentric distance.