The variation of relative magnetic helicity around major flares

TL;DR

This study analyzes how magnetic helicity evolves before major solar flares, revealing a pattern of accumulation followed by stabilization, which could serve as an early warning indicator for solar eruptions.

Contribution

It identifies a characteristic two-phase pattern of magnetic helicity variation preceding major flares and links helicity accumulation rate to flare intensity, offering potential for eruption prediction.

Findings

Major flares are preceded by significant helicity accumulation.

Helicity accumulates at a nearly constant rate before flares.

Helicity change rate correlates strongly with flare X-ray flux.

Abstract

We have investigated the variation of magnetic helicity over a span of several days around the times of 11 X-class flares which occurred in seven active regions (NOAA 9672, 10030, 10314, 10486, 10564, 10696, and 10720) using the magnetograms taken by the Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI) on board the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). As a major result we found that each of these major flares was preceded by a significant helicity accumulation over a long period (0.5 to a few days). Another finding is that the helicity accumulates at a nearly constant rate and then becomes nearly constant before the flares. This led us to distinguish the helicity variation into two phases: a phase of monotonically increasing helicity and the following phase of relatively constant helicity. As expected, the amount of helicity accumulated shows a modest correlation with time-integrated soft X-ray flux during flares. However, the average helicity change rate in the first phase shows even stronger correlation with the time-integrated soft X-ray flux. We discuss the physical implications of this result and the possibility that this characteristic helicity variation pattern can be used as an early warning sign for solar eruptions.