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Accepted · first revision · record

Title: Do magnetic switchbacks form at the Sun or in the wind?
Plain: Parker Solar Probe found that the Sun's magnetic field in the wind often flips back on itself for seconds to hours; these switchbacks may be launched from the solar surface or grow out of waves as the wind expands.
Precise: Switchbacks are local reversals of the radial magnetic field with radial-velocity jumps near the local Alfven speed, clustered in patches on supergranulation scales. Determine whether they originate from interchange reconnection low in the corona or grow from Alfvenic fluctuations in the expanding wind, using their occurrence rate versus heliocentric distance inside $\sim 20 R_{\mathrm{sun}}$, their composition and temperature relative to the surroundings, and their size distribution. Answer: yes or no for a coronal origin.
Settled by: Radial profile of switchback occurrence and composition measured by Parker Solar Probe across its closest perihelia, compared with in situ growth models.
Kind: well-posed
Answer type: yes-no
References: (empty)
Literature status: contested
Status note: (empty)
Posed since: 2019