Magnetic Complexity in Eruptive Solar Active Regions and Associated Eruption Parameters

TL;DR

This study quantifies magnetic complexity in solar active regions and finds that regions with more intense polarity inversion lines produce stronger flares and faster CMEs, enhancing understanding of solar eruptive events.

Contribution

Introduces an efficient magnetic complexity index to relate active region magnetic features with eruption strength and dynamics, providing new insights into flare and CME predictability.

Findings

More intense polarity inversion lines correlate with stronger flares.

Regions with higher magnetic complexity produce faster, more impulsive CMEs.

No significant link between inversion line strength and geomagnetic storm indices.

Abstract

Using an efficient magnetic complexity index in the active-region solar photosphere, we quantify the preflare strength of the photospheric magnetic polarity inversion lines in 23 eruptive active regions with flare/CME/ICME events tracked all the way from the Sun to the Earth. We find that active regions with more intense polarity inversion lines host statistically stronger flares and faster, more impulsively accelerated, CMEs. No significant correlation is found between the strength of the inversion lines and the flare soft X-ray rise times, the ICME transit times, and the peak $Dst indices of the induced geomagnetic storms. Corroborating these and previous results, we speculate on a possible interpretation for the connection between source active regions, flares, and CMEs. Further work is needed to validate this concept and uncover its physical details.