Magnetic Flux Emergence into the Solar Corona. II. Global Magnetic Fields with Current Sheets

2002 ◽  
Vol 576 (2) ◽  
pp. 1005-1017 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Zhang ◽  
B. C. Low
2004 ◽  
Vol 618 (2) ◽  
pp. L153-L156 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Galsgaard ◽  
F. Moreno-Insertis ◽  
V. Archontis ◽  
A. Hood

Author(s):  
Vasilis Archontis

We present a review of the process of magnetic flux emergence in the Sun. We focus on observations and numerical experiments that explore the dynamical rise of magnetic fields from the solar interior to the corona. We describe the response of the highly stratified solar atmosphere on flux emergence and, consequently, we present a comprehensive picture of the coupling between solar dynamic events and flux emergence. We discuss potential applications of this process in other astrophysical environments.


2019 ◽  
Vol 85 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Prior ◽  
D. MacTaggart

Magnetic helicity flux gives information about the topology of a magnetic field passing through a boundary. In solar physics applications, this boundary is the photosphere and magnetic helicity flux has become an important quantity in analysing magnetic fields emerging into the solar atmosphere. In this work we investigate the evolution of magnetic helicity flux in magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of solar flux emergence. We consider emerging magnetic fields with different topologies and investigate how the magnetic helicity flux patterns correspond to the dynamics of emergence. To investigate how the helicity input is connected to the emergence process, we consider two forms of the helicity flux. The first is the standard form giving topological information weighted by magnetic flux. The second form represents the net winding and can be interpreted as the standard helicity flux less the magnetic flux. Both quantities provide important and distinct information about the structure of the emerging field and these quantities differ significantly for mixed sign helicity fields. A novel aspect of this study is that we account for the varying morphology of the photosphere due to the motion of the dense plasma lifted into the chromosphere. Our results will prove useful for the interpretation of magnetic helicity flux maps in solar observations.


2019 ◽  
Vol 626 ◽  
pp. A67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilpo Virtanen ◽  
Kalevi Mursula

Context. Solar photospheric magnetic fields have been observed since the 1950s and calibrated digital data are available from the 1970s onwards. Synoptic maps of the photospheric magnetic field are widely used in solar research, especially in the modeling of the solar corona and solar wind, and in studies of space weather and space climate. Magnetic flux density of the solar corona is a key parameter for heliospheric physics. Aims. The observed photospheric magnetic flux depends on the instrument and data processing used, which is a major problem for long-term studies. Here we scale the different observations of the photospheric field to the same absolute level and form a uniform record of coronal magnetic flux since the 1970s. Methods. We use a recently suggested method of harmonic scaling, which scales any pair of synoptic observations of any resolution to the same level. After scaling, we use the Potential Field Source Surface (PFSS) model to calculate the scaled magnetic field at various altitudes from photosphere to coronal source surface. Results. Harmonic scaling gives effective, latitudinally dependent scaling factors, which vary over the solar cycle. When scaling low-resolution data to high-resolution data, effective scaling factors are typically largest at low latitudes in the ascending phase of solar cycle and smallest for unipolar polar fields around solar minima. The harmonic scaling method used here allows for the observations of the different data sets to be scaled to the same level and the scaled unsigned coronal flux densities agree very well with each other. We also find that scaled coronal magnetic fields show a slightly different solar cycle variation from that of the nonscaled fields.


Author(s):  
D. W. Longcope ◽  
L. A. Tarr

It is clear that the solar corona is being heated and that coronal magnetic fields undergo reconnection all the time. Here we attempt to show that these two facts are related—i.e. coronal reconnection generates heat. This attempt must address the fact that topological change of field lines does not automatically generate heat. We present one case of flux emergence where we have measured the rate of coronal magnetic reconnection and the rate of energy dissipation in the corona. The ratio of these two, , is a current comparable to the amount of current expected to flow along the boundary separating the emerged flux from the pre-existing flux overlying it. We can generalize this relation to the overall corona in quiet Sun or in active regions. Doing so yields estimates for the contribution to coronal heating from magnetic reconnection. These estimated rates are comparable to the amount required to maintain the corona at its observed temperature.


1979 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 189-191
Author(s):  
M.H. Gokhale ◽  
K.R. Sivaraman

Quiescent prominences are known to occur invariably above the neutral lines in the large scale photospheric fields. This suggests that such prominences may be coronal current sheets across which the magnetic fields reconnect (cf. e.g. Raadu and Kuperus, 1973). In the absence of any satisfactory model for quiescent prominences (cf. Report of Working Group 1 in this Colloquium), the reconnection hypothesis remains as yet unsettled. However, if it is true, we have here an evidence to show that the quiescent prominences outside the active regions might account for the reconnection of almost all the photospheric magnetic flux emerging in the active regions as required by the theories of the 11-yr cycle of activity (e.g. Babcock, 1961).


1994 ◽  
Vol 144 ◽  
pp. 559-564
Author(s):  
P. Ambrož ◽  
J. Sýkora

AbstractWe were successful in observing the solar corona during five solar eclipses (1973-1991). For the eclipse days the coronal magnetic field was calculated by extrapolation from the photosphere. Comparison of the observed and calculated coronal structures is carried out and some peculiarities of this comparison, related to the different phases of the solar cycle, are presented.


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