Magnetic Connectivity between Active Regions 10987, 10988, and 10989 by Means of Nonlinear Force-Free Field Extrapolation

TL;DR

This study models the solar corona's magnetic field across multiple active regions using a spherical nonlinear force-free field extrapolation, revealing strong magnetic connectivity and stable topology over three days.

Contribution

It introduces a spherical geometry nonlinear force-free field extrapolation method for multi-active-region magnetic connectivity analysis.

Findings

Active regions are more magnetically connected than electrically.

No major topological changes observed over three days.

Magnetic energy densities compared between regions.

Abstract

Extrapolation codes for modelling the magnetic field in the corona in cartesian geometry do not take the curvature of the Sun's surface into account and can only be applied to relatively small areas, \textit{e.g.}, a single active region. We apply a method for nonlinear force-free coronal magnetic field modelling of photospheric vector magnetograms in spherical geometry which allows us to study the connectivity between multi-active regions. We use vector magnetograph data from the Synoptic Optical Long-term Investigations of the Sun survey (SOLIS)/Vector Spectromagnetograph(VSM) to model the coronal magnetic field, where we study three neighbouring magnetically connected active regions (ARs: 10987, 10988, 10989) observed on 28, 29, and 30 March 2008, respectively. We compare the magnetic field topologies and the magnetic energy densities and study the connectivities between the active regions(ARs). We have studied the time evolution of magnetic field over the period of three days and found no major changes in topologies as there was no major eruption event. From this study we have concluded that active regions are much more connected magnetically than the electric current.