Examination of Separator Reconnection Rates in a Series of Adjacent Emerging/Existing Active Region Pairs
Abstract
Changes in magnetic field line topology must be occurring when new flux emerges in the solar corona in order for it to become incorporated in the existing coronal field. Magnetic reconnection is the process responsible for this incorporation. We have previously quantified this process using a system in which a new active region (AR) emerges in the vicinity of an existing one by cataloging the loops formed between them. We make a spatial/temporal stack plot of the region between the ARs by extracting the pixels along a virtual slit. A persistent, bright streak in such a plot indicates a coronal loop connecting the newly emerging flux to the existing AR. We assert that loops formed post-emergence between the ARs are initially the result of reconnection. This work presents an extension of our data set to include 12 new emergence events using high time-cadence data from SDO/AIA. Our data set includes several events in which no reconnected loops seem to form between the two ARs. We present an improved method of our loop cataloging procedure. Previous studies of such events have both under and over-sampled the expected reconnected flux formed between the two regions, and included a variety of delays between the emergence of the new AR and the onset of reconnection. To elucidate such discrepancies, we fit loops using a linear force-free field (LFFF) model which we then use to construct a full, non-linear force-free field (NLFFF) model of the system.
This work was supported by NASA's HGI program.- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFMSH11D3387M
- Keywords:
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- 7599 General or miscellaneous;
- SOLAR PHYSICS;
- ASTROPHYSICS;
- AND ASTRONOMY;
- 7899 General or miscellaneous;
- SPACE PLASMA PHYSICS;
- 7999 General or miscellaneous;
- SPACE WEATHER