Earth isn’t the only celestial body with polar vortices—massive spinning weather formations that develop around its poles. New research suggests that our Sun likely has its own version of these enormous whirlpools, but with a unique twist: unlike Earth’s vortices, which are driven by temperature differences in our atmosphere, the Sun’s polar vortices are shaped by magnetic forces.
In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR) have used advanced computer simulations to predict what these solar polar vortices might look like. As NCAR senior scientist Mausumi Dikpati, who led the study, notes: “No one can say for certain what is happening at the solar poles. But this new research gives us an intriguing look at what we might expect to find when we are able, for the first time, to observe the solar poles.”
The existence of polar vortices on the Sun shouldn’t come as a complete surprise. These spinning formations naturally develop in fluids surrounding rotating bodies due to something called the Coriolis force. We’ve observed them on nearly every planet in our solar system. NASA’s Juno mission revealed stunning images of Jupiter’s poles, showing eight tightly packed swirls around its north pole and five around its south. Saturn’s polar vortices, photographed by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, feature a distinctive hexagonal shape in the north and a more circular pattern in the south.
What makes the Sun’s case particularly intriguing is that its “fluid” is actually plasma—a superhot, electrically charged gas that behaves differently from the atmospheric gases surrounding planets. This plasma interacts with magnetic fields in complex ways, potentially creating unique patterns in the Sun’s polar vortices that we’ve never seen before.
The research team’s simulations revealed an fascinating pattern: a ring of vortices forms at about 55 degrees latitude—roughly equivalent to Earth’s Arctic Circle—and then travels toward the poles in a gradually tightening circle. As this ring contracts, it sheds some vortices along the way, eventually leaving just a pair of swirling patterns near each pole. These vortices then completely disappear during the peak of solar activity, known as solar maximum, when the Sun’s magnetic field reverses polarity.
This pattern coincides with a known solar phenomenon called the “rush to the poles,” where magnetic fields migrate from lower latitudes toward the poles just before the Sun’s magnetic field flips. This connection could help explain some long-standing mysteries about solar behavior. Scientists have long used the strength of this polar rush as a way to predict the intensity of upcoming solar cycles, but they’ve never fully understood why this works. The newly discovered relationship between polar vortices and magnetic field movement might provide the missing piece to this puzzle.
The findings have important implications for future solar missions. As Scott McIntosh, vice president of space operations for Lynker and a study co-author, points out: “You could launch a solar mission, and it could arrive to observe the poles at completely the wrong time.” The research suggests that polar vortices should be visible during most parts of the solar cycle, except during solar maximum when the magnetic field reverses.
The European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter mission, working in cooperation with NASA, might give us our first actual glimpse of these polar vortices, though its first look will come near solar maximum. The researchers suggest that to fully understand these features, we’ll need multiple spacecraft viewing the Sun’s poles simultaneously from different angles. As McIntosh notes, “Our conceptual boundary now is that we are operating with only one viewpoint. To make significant progress, we must have the observations we need to test our hypotheses and confirm whether simulations like these are correct.”
Understanding these polar vortices isn’t just about satisfying scientific curiosity. The Sun’s magnetic activity drives space weather, which can affect everything from satellite communications to power grids on Earth. Better understanding of how these polar vortices interact with the Sun’s magnetic field could improve our ability to predict solar cycles and their effects on our technology-dependent civilization.
In a cosmic sense, this research reveals yet another way in which our Sun, despite being fundamentally different from the planets it governs, shares some common physical patterns with them. From the swirling storms at Jupiter’s poles to Earth’s polar vortices and now these predicted solar whirlpools, nature seems to favor these grand rotational patterns at the poles of celestial bodies—proving once again that in space, as on Earth, what goes around, comes around.
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