Magnetic energy and helicity in two emerging active regions in the sun

Abstract

The magnetic energy and relative magnetic helicity in two emerging solar active regions, AR 11072 and AR 11158, are studied. They are computed by integrating over time the energy and relative helicity fluxes across the photosphere. The fluxes consist of two components: one from photospheric tangential flows that shear and braid field lines (shear term), the other from normal flows that advect magnetic flux into the corona (emergence term). For these active regions: (1) relative magnetic helicity in the active-region corona is mainly contributed by the shear term, (2) helicity fluxes from the emergence and the shear terms have the same sign, (3) magnetic energy in the corona (including both potential energy and free energy) is mainly contributed by the emergence term, and (4) energy fluxes from the emergence term and the shear term evolved consistently in phase during the entire flux emergence course. We also examine the apparent tangential velocity derived by tracking field-line footpoints using a simple tracking method. It is found that this velocity is more consistent with tangential plasma velocity than with the flux transport velocity, which agrees with the conclusion by Schuck. © 2012. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..