SURFING THE SOLAR WIND - The outermost solar atmosphere, or corona, is normally visible only during a solar eclipse. New observations of particles ``surfing'' on waves in the corona have shed light on an ongoing mystery of why the solar wind flows as fast as it does. Charged particles in the solar wind spiral around lines of magnetic force, and these lines oscillate back and forth to create outward-propagating waves. When the particles' spiraling frequencies match the wave frequencies, the particles can absorb the waves' energy; this spins up the particles into larger orbits, gives them an added outward boost, and damps out the waves. (Image credit: NASA/Dana Berry, Allied Signal Max Q digital animation group)

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