Comparison of Magnetic Flux Distribution between a Coronal Hole and a Quiet Region

TL;DR

This study compares magnetic flux distribution and dynamics in a coronal hole and a quiet solar region, revealing differences in flux emergence, cancellation, and polarity dominance, with implications for solar magnetic field understanding.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of magnetic flux emergence, disappearance, and polarity distribution differences between coronal holes and quiet regions using high-resolution magnetograms and Hα images.

Findings

Magnetic flux evolution is faster in quiet regions than in coronal holes.

In coronal holes, stronger magnetic fields are predominantly of one polarity, while weaker fields are of the opposite polarity.

The flux distribution and polarity dominance vary significantly between the two regions.

Abstract

Employing Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) deep magnetograms and H${\alpha}$ images in a quiet region and a coronal hole, observed on September 14 and 16, 2004, respectively, we have explored the magnetic flux emergence, disappearance and distribution in the two regions. The following results are obtained: (1) The evolution of magnetic flux in the quiet region is much faster than that in the coronal hole, as the flux appeared in the form of ephemeral regions in the quiet region is 4.3 times as large as that in the coronal hole, and the flux disappeared in the form of flux cancellation, 2.9 times as fast as in the coronal hole. (2) More magnetic elements with opposite polarities in the quiet region are connected by arch filaments, estimating from magnetograms and H${\alpha}$ images. (3) We measured the magnetic flux of about 1000 magnetic elements in each observing region. The flux distribution of network and intranetwork (IN) elements is similar in both polarities in the quiet region. For network fields in the coronal hole, the number of negative elements is much more than that of positive elements. However for the IN fields, the number of positive elements is much more than that of negative elements. (4) In the coronal hole, the fraction of negative flux change obviously with different threshold flux density. 73% of the magnetic fields with flux density larger than 2 Gauss is negative polarity, and 95% of the magnetic fields is negative, if we only measure the fields with their flux density larger than 20 Gauss. Our results display that in a coronal hole, stronger fields is occupied by one predominant polarity; however the majority of weaker fields, occupied by the other polarity.