The Sun’s poles may hold answers to long-standing mysteries about magnetic cycles, solar wind, and space weather.
The polar regions of the Sun remain one of the least explored areas in solar science.
Satellites and ground-based observatories have captured remarkable details of the Sun’s surface, atmosphere, and magnetic field, nearly all of these views come from the ecliptic plane, the narrow orbital path followed by Earth and most other planets.
This restricted perspective means scientists have only limited knowledge of what occurs near the solar poles. Yet these regions are critical. Their magnetic fields and dynamic activity are central to the solar magnetic cycle and provide both mass and energy to the fast solar wind. These processes ultimately shape solar behavior and influence space weather that can reach Earth.
On the surface, the poles may seem calm compared to the Sun’s more active mid-latitudes (around ±35°), where sunspots, solar flares, and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are common. However, research shows that polar magnetic fields contribute directly to the global solar dynamo and may act as the foundation for the next solar cycle by helping establish the Sun’s dipole magnetic field.
Observations from the Ulysses mission further revealed that the fast solar wind originates mainly from vast coronal holes in the polar regions.
