Richard C. Canfield

Latitudinal variation of helicity of photospheric magnetic fields

Using a 1988-1994 data set of original photospheric vector magnetograms as well as published data, we have studied the average magnetic helicity of 69 diverse active regions, adopting the linear force-free field parameter alpha as a measure. This average value was determined by minimizing the differences between the computed constant-alpha force-free and observed horizontal magnetic fields. The average magnetic helicity shows a sign difference at the 2 sigma level in opposite hemispheres. In our data set, 76% of the active regions in the northern hemisphere have negative helicity, and 69% in the southern hemisphere, positive. Although the data show considerable variation from one active region to the next, the data set as a whole suggest that the magnitude of the average helicity increases with solar latitude, starting at zero near the equator, reaches a maximum near 15 deg - 25 deg in both hemispheres, and drops back toward smaller values avove 35 deg - 40 deg. Qualitative comparison with published models shows that such latitudinal variation of the average magnetic helicity may result from either turbulent convective motions or differential rotation, although our studies of rotating sunspots lead us to favor the former.

Sigmoidal morphology and eruptive solar activity

Soft X-ray images of solar active regions frequently show S- or inverse-S (sigmoidal) morphology. We have studied the Yohkoh Soft X-Ray Telescope video movie for 1993 and 1997. We have classified active regions according to morphology (sigmoidal or non-sigmoidal) and nature of activity (eruptive or non-eruptive). As well, we have used NOAA sunspot areas for each region as a measure of size. We find that regions are significantly more likely to be eruptive if they are either sigmoidal or large.

Evidence for current-carrying emerging flux

To determine the relationship between electric currents and magnetic flux in emerging sunspots, we use observations of the morphology, proper motion, magnetic flux, and currents associated with several well-observed growing bipoles. Our target was NOAA Active Region 7260, which included a preexisting large spot and a fast-growing area of new magnetic flux. Magnetic bipoles in this region are well documented by X-ray images from the Yohkoh spacecraft and optical images and vector magnetograms from several ground-based observatories. In this paper we show that (1) the Hα and X-ray structures associated with these bipoles do not agree with potential-field extrapolations of magnetograms; (2) proper motions imply that the flux bundles that make up these new bipoles are twisted before they emerge; (3) these new bipoles are cospatial with significant vertical electric currents; (4) the morphology, proper motion, and measured currents of these bipoles all imply the same sense of twist; (5) this sense of twist is the same as the large-scale twist of the preexisting large spot; and (6) the increase of these currents, as new flux emerges, is not consistent with their generation by photospheric motions. We conclude that the new magnetic flux that emerged in this active region carried currents generated below the photosphere.

Patterns of helicity in solar active regions

Using 46 vector magnetograms from the Stokes Polarimeter of Mees Solar Observatory (MSO), we studied patterns of local helicity in three diverse solar active regions. From these magnetograms we computed maps of the local helicity parameter alpha = J(sub z)/B(sub z). Although such maps are noisy, we found patterns at the level approximately 2 to 3 sigma(sub J(sub z)), which repeat in successive magnetograms for up to several days. Typically, the alpha maps of any given active region contain identifiable patches with both positive and negative values of alpha. Even within a single sunspot complex, several such alpha patches can often be seen. We followed 68 alpha patches that could be identified on at least two successive alpha maps. We found that the persistence fraction of such patches decrease exponentially, with a characteristic time approximately 27 hr.

ON THE SUBPHOTOSPHERIC ORIGIN OF CORONAL ELECTRIC CURRENTS

Using photospheric vector magnetograms from the Haleakala Stokes Polarimeter and coronal X-ray images from the Yohkoh Soft X-Ray Telescope (SXT), we infer values of the force-free field parameter α at both photospheric and coronal levels within 140 active regions. We determine the value of α for a linear force-free field that best fits each magnetogram in a least-squares sense. We average values from all available magnetograms to obtain a single mean photospheric α-value αp for each active region. From the SXT images we estimate α in the corona by determining (π/L) sin γ for individual loops, where γ is the observed shear angle of X-ray loops of length L. We then average these values of α to obtain a single coronal α value, αc, for each active region. In active regions for which the photospheric α-map is predominantly of one sign, we find that the values of αp and αc are well correlated. Only for active regions in which both signs of α are well represented, and in which our method of analysis therefore breaks down, are the values of αp and αc poorly correlated. The former correlation implies that coronal electric currents typically extend down to at least the photosphere. However, other studies imply subphotospheric origin of the currents, and even current systems, that are observed in the photosphere. We therefore conclude that the currents responsible for sinuous coronal structures are of subphotospheric origin.

The morphology of flare phenomena, magnetic fields, and electric currents in active regions. I - Introduction and methods

This paper introduces a study of electric current systems in solar active regions and their spatial relationship to sites of electron precipitation and high pressure in flares. The primary purpose of this study is to provide observational evidence for or against the flare models commonly discussed in the literature. We determine the photospheric distribution of vertical currents from vector magnetograms. We use Hα line profiles to identify sites of intense nonthermal electron precipitation into the chromosphere and of high pressure in the overlying corona. By observing complete Hα spectra rather than just narrow-band images, we are able to distinguish between electron precipitation and high-pressure sites in the observed flares

Hemispheric Helicity Trend for Solar Cycle 23

Applying the same methods we used in solar cycle 22, we study active region vector magnetograms, full-disk X-ray images, and full-disk line-of-sight magnetograms to derive the helicity of solar magnetic fields in the first 4 years of solar cycle 23. We find that these three data sets all exhibit the same two key tendencies—significant scatter and weak hemispheric asymmetry—as were observed in solar cycle 22. This supports the interpretation of these tendencies as signatures of the writhing of magnetic flux by turbulence in the convection zone.

Reconnection and Helicity in a Solar Flare

Using X-ray images, Hα images, and vector magnetograms, we have studied the evolution of the coronal structure and magnetic field of NOAA Active Region 7154 during 1992 May 5-12. A two-ribbon 4B/M7.4 flare associated with an Hα filament eruption was observed on May 8, 15:13-19:16 UT. An interesting feature of the region was a long, twisted X-ray structure, which formed shortly before the flare and disappeared after it, being replaced by a system of unsheared postflare loops. Neither the X-ray nor Hα morphology nor the photospheric magnetic field shows any indication of gradual buildup of nonpotential energy prior to the flare. Rather, the long structure appears to result from the reconnection of two shorter ones just tens of minutes before the filament eruption and flare.Using vector magnetograms and X-ray morphology, we determine the helicity density of the magnetic field using the force-free field parameter α. The observations show that the long structure retained the same helicity density as the two shorter structures, but its greater length implies a higher coronal twist. The measured length and α value combine to imply a twist that exceeds the threshold for the MHD kink instability in a force-free cylindrical flux tube. We conclude that theoretical studies of such simple models, which have found that the MHD kink instability does not lead to global dissipation, do not adequately address the physical processes that govern coronal magnetic fields.

The Yohkoh Mission for High-Energy Solar Physics

The Japanese Yohkoh satellite is now in orbit observing the sun with a set of x-ray imagers and x-ray and gamma-ray spectrometers. The data from this successful mission provide new information on solar flares and the suns corona. This paper discusses the Yohkoh observations and presents a sample of the first scientific results from the mission.

THE IMAGING VECTOR MAGNETOGRAPH AT HALEAKALA

We describe an instrument we have built and installed at Mees Solar Observatory on Haleakala, Maui, to measure polarization in narrow-band solar images. Observations in Zeemansensitive photospheric lines have been made for nearly all solar active regions since the instrument began operations in 1992. The magnetograph includes a 28-cm aperture telescope, a polarization modulator, a tunable Fabry-Pérot filter, CCD cameras and control electronics. Stokes spectra of a photospheric line are obtained with 7 pm spectral resolution, 1 arc sec spatial resolution over a field 4.7 arc min square, and polarimetric precision of 0.1%. A complete vector magnetogram observation can be made every eight minutes. The flexibility of the instrument encourages diverse observations: besides active region magnetograms we have made, for example, composite vector magnetograms of the full solar disk, and Hα polarization movies of flaring regions.