Authors: Zachary Bailey , Riddhi Bandyopadhyay, Shadia Habbal , and Miloslav Druckmüller

Plasma turbulence produced by the transverse motion of magnetic fields anchored in the photosphere is a likely source of energy to account for the steep temperature gradient between the chromosphere and the corona. At present, little is known about the turbulent structures near the solar surface. In this work, we use the highest spatial resolution white-light total solar eclipse image to date, to infer the transverse correlation length of turbulence from 0.33 to 94 Mm above the solar surface for the first time. This measurement probes the near Sun environment over 2 orders of magnitude closer to the Sun than ever before. Our results find that the turbulence injection scale in the chromosphere is ∼1.5 Mm, which we associate with the size of granules. Surprisingly, the change in perpendicular correlation length with radial distance from the Sun exhibits a plateau in the first 4 Mm, followed by a rapid increase until 9 Mm where it becomes shallower thereafter. The latter gradient yields the first empirical inference of the expansion of the magnetic field in the transition region. (See Bailey et al. (2025) ApJL, 980:L20).