Time Evolution of Coronal Magnetic Helicity in the Flaring Active Region NOAA 10930

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

17 pages, 4 figures, ApJ, 2010, 720, 1102-1107

Scientific paper

To study the three-dimensional (3D) magnetic field topology and its long-term evolution associated with the X3.4 flare of 2006 December 13, we investigate the coronal relative magnetic helicity in the flaring active region (AR) NOAA 10930 during the time period of December 8-14. The coronal helicity is calculated based on the 3D nonlinear force-free magnetic fields reconstructed by the weighted optimization method of Wiegelmann, and is compared with the amount of helicity injected through the photospheric surface of the AR. The helicity injection is determined from the magnetic helicity flux density proposed by Pariat et al. using Solar and Heliospheric Observatory/Michelson Doppler Imager magnetograms. The major findings of this study are the following. (1) The time profile of the coronal helicity shows a good correlation with that of the helicity accumulation by injection through the surface. (2) The coronal helicity of the AR is estimated to be -4.3$\times$10$^{43}$ Mx$^{2}$ just before the X3.4 flare. (3) This flare is preceded not only by a large increase of negative helicity, -3.2$\times$10$^{43}$ Mx$^{2}$, in the corona over ~1.5 days but also by noticeable injections of positive helicity though the photospheric surface around the flaring magnetic polarity inversion line during the time period of the channel structure development. We conjecture that the occurrence of the X3.4 flare is involved with the positive helicity injection into an existing system of negative helicity.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Time Evolution of Coronal Magnetic Helicity in the Flaring Active Region NOAA 10930 does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Time Evolution of Coronal Magnetic Helicity in the Flaring Active Region NOAA 10930, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Time Evolution of Coronal Magnetic Helicity in the Flaring Active Region NOAA 10930 will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-84202

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.