Nature of helicity injection in non-erupting solar active regions

TL;DR

This study investigates the magnetic helicity evolution in four non-erupting solar active regions, revealing successive opposite helicity injections that prevent flux rope formation and CME eruptions, with implications for understanding solar activity.

Contribution

It provides detailed observations of helicity flux evolution in non-eruptive ARs, highlighting the role of successive opposite sign helicity injections in suppressing eruptions.

Findings

Opposite helicity signs are injected during AR evolution.

No associated CMEs were observed in studied ARs.

Helicity injection patterns correlate with non-eruptive behavior.

Abstract

Using time-sequence vector magnetic field and coronal observations from \textit{Solar Dynamics Observatory}, we report the observations of the magnetic field evolution and coronal activity in four emerging active regions (ARs). The ARs emerge with leading polarity being the same as for the majority of ARs in a hemisphere of solar cycle 24. After emergence, the magnetic polarities separate each other without building a sheared polarity inversion line. In all four ARs, the magnetic fields are driven by foot point motions such that the sign of the helicity injection ($dH/dt$) in the first half of the evolution is changed to the opposite sign in the later part of the observation time. This successive injection of opposite helicity is also consistent with the sign of mean force-free twist parameter ($\alpha_{av}$). Further, the EUV light curves of the ARs in 94\AA~and GOES X-ray flux reveal flaring activity below C-class magnitude. Importantly, the white-light coronagraph images in conjunction with the AR images in AIA 94 \AA~delineate the absence of associated CMEs with the studied ARs. These observations imply that the ARs with successive injection of opposite sign magnetic helicity are not favorable to twisted flux rope formation with excess coronal helicity, and therefore are unable to launch CMEs, according to recent reports. This study provides the characteristics of helicity flux evolution in the ARs referring to the conservative property of magnetic helicity and more such studies would help to quantify the eruptive capability of a given AR.