English

Parameters of the Magnetic Flux inside Coronal Holes

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics 2015-05-13 v1

Abstract

Parameters of magnetic flux distribution inside low-latitude coronal holes (CHs) were analyzed. A statistical study of 44 CHs based on Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)/MDI full disk magnetograms and SOHO/EIT 284\AA images showed that the density of the net magnetic flux, BnetB_{{\rm net}}, does not correlate with the associated solar wind speeds, VxV_x. Both the area and net flux of CHs correlate with the solar wind speed and the corresponding spatial Pearson correlation coefficients are 0.75 and 0.71, respectively. A possible explanation for the low correlation between BnetB_{{\rm net}} and VxV_x is proposed. The observed non-correlation might be rooted in the structural complexity of the magnetic field. As a measure of complexity of the magnetic field, the filling factor, f(r) f(r), was calculated as a function of spatial scales. In CHs, f(r)f(r) was found to be nearly constant at scales above 2 Mm, which indicates a monofractal structural organization and smooth temporal evolution. The magnitude of the filling factor is 0.04 from the Hinode SOT/SP data and 0.07 from the MDI/HR data. The Hinode data show that at scales smaller than 2 Mm, the filling factor decreases rapidly, which means a mutlifractal structure and highly intermittent, burst-like energy release regime. The absence of necessary complexity in CH magnetic fields at scales above 2 Mm seems to be the most plausible reason why the net magnetic flux density does not seem to be related to the solar wind speed: the energy release dynamics, needed for solar wind acceleration, appears to occur at small scales below 1 Mm.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0908.2460,
  title  = {Parameters of the Magnetic Flux inside Coronal Holes},
  author = {Valentina Abramenko and Vasyl Yurchyshyn and Hiroko Watanabe},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0908.2460},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

6 figures, approximately 23 pages. Accepted in Solar Physics