Current helicity and magnetic field anisotropy in solar active regions

Autor: Xu, H., Stepanov, R., Kuzanyan, K., Sokoloff, D., Zhang, H., Gao, Y.
Rok vydání: 2015
Předmět:
Druh dokumentu: Working Paper
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stv2097
Popis: The electric current helicity density $\displaystyle \chi=\langle\epsilon_{ijk}b_i\frac{\partial b_k}{\partial x_j}\rangle$ contains six terms, where $b_i$ are components of the magnetic field. Due to the observational limitations, only four of the above six terms can be inferred from solar photospheric vector magnetograms. By comparing the results for simulation we distinguished the statistical difference of above six terms for isotropic and anisotropic cases. We estimated the relative degree of anisotropy for three typical active regions and found that it is of order 0.8 which means the assumption of local isotropy for the observable current helicity density terms is generally not satisfied for solar active regions. Upon studies of the statistical properties of the anisotropy of magnetic field of solar active regions with latitudes and with evolution in the solar cycle, we conclude that the consistency of that assumption of local homogeneity and isotropy requires further analysis in the light of our findings.
Comment: MNRAS submitted
Databáze: arXiv