The reconstruction of plasma parameters in the interplanetary medium is very important to understand the interplanetary propagation of solar eruptions and for Space Weather application purposes. Because only a few spacecraft are measuring in situ these parameters, reconstructions are currently performed by running complex numerical Magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) simulations starting from remote sensing observations of the Sun. Current models apply full 3D MHD simulations of the corona or extrapolations of photospheric magnetic fields combined with and semiempirical relationships to derive the plasma parameters on a sphere centered on the Sun (inner boundary). The plasma is then propagated in the interplanetary medium up to the Earth’s orbit and beyond. Nevertheless, this approach requires significant theoretical and computational efforts, and the results are only in partial agreement with the in situ observations. In this paper we describe a new approach to this problem called RIMAP - Reverse In situ data and MHD APproach. The plasma parameters in the inner boundary at 0.1 AU are derived directly from the in situ measurements acquired at 1 AU, by applying a back reconstruction technique to remap them into the inner heliosphere. This remapping is done by using the Weber and Davies solar wind theoretical model to reconstruct the wind flowlines. The plasma is then re-propagated outward from 0.1 AU by running a MHD numerical simulation based on the PLUTO code. The interplanetary spiral reconstructions obtained with RIMAP are not only in a much better agreement with the in situ observations, but are also including many more small-scale longitudinal features in the plasma parameters that are not reproduced with the approaches developed so far.

The solar wind measured in situ by Parker Solar Probe in the very inner heliosphere is studied in combination with the remote-sensing observation of the coronal source region provided by the METIS coronagraph aboard Solar Orbiter. The coronal outflows observed near the ecliptic by Metis on 2021 January 17 at 16:30 UT, between 3.5 and 6.3 R ⊙ above the eastern solar limb, can be associated with the streams sampled by PSP at 0.11 and 0.26 au from the Sun, in two time intervals almost 5 days apart. The two plasma flows come from two distinct source regions, characterized by different magnetic field polarity and intensity at the coronal base. It follows that both the global and local properties of the two streams are different. Specifically, the solar wind emanating from the stronger magnetic field region has a lower bulk flux density, as expected, and is in a state of well-developed Alfvénic turbulence, with low intermittency. This is interpreted in terms of slab turbulence in the context of nearly incompressible magnetohydrodynamics. Conversely, the highly intermittent and poorly developed turbulent behavior of the solar wind from the weaker magnetic field region is presumably due to large magnetic deflections most likely attributed to the presence of switchbacks of interchange reconnection origin.