A Simple Method of Resolving the 180 Degree Ambiguity Employing the Chirality of Solar Features

Details A Simple Method of Resolving the 180 Degree Ambiguity Employing the Chirality of Solar Features A Simple Method of Resolving the 180 Degree Ambiguity Employing the Chirality of Solar Features

Jun 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006spd....37.0129m&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, SPD meeting #37, #1.29; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38, p.220

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

The 180 degree ambiguity in magnetic field direction along polarity reversal boundaries can be resolved simply and reliably by a technique that we name "chiral method". For a given polarity boundary, the chiral method requires identifying the chirality of at least one solar feature related to the polarity boundary, familiarity with the one-to-one associations between the chirality of solar features, and the polarity of the network magnetic field on at least one side of the polarity boundary. We demonstrate the technique in 6 examples. The examples cover the spectrum of polarity boundaries associated with filament channels and filaments ranging from those associated with active regions to those on the quiet Sun.The applicability of the chiral method to all categories of filaments supports the view that active region filaments and quiescent filaments are the extreme ends in a continuous spectrum of filaments. An example is shown of a filament where the chirality could not be determined in low resolution images because of lack of consistency in barb orientation; however, at high resolution, all threads of this barb were found to be consistent with just one sense of chirality. The chiral method is almost universally applicable because many types of data, that reveal chirality in solar features, are now readily available over the world-wide web. Solar features that most commonly reveal chirality are filaments, filament channels, sigmoids, and both quiescent and dynamic coronal loop systems. Assuming that the chirality of the solar features is identified correctly, the method is fail-safe and physically meaningful because chirality is an observational representation of the helicity and there are clear differences between left-handed and right-handed solar structures.Support from US NSF grant ATM-0209395 and NASA grant NAG5-10852 are acknowledged for S.F.M. and Y.L.

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