The Sun's Non-Potential Corona over Solar Cycle 24

TL;DR

This study models the Sun's corona over Solar Cycle 24, revealing how non-potential magnetic energy and helicity evolve, and linking these to eruptive activity and sunspot numbers using a simplified magneto-frictional approach.

Contribution

It introduces a conservative magneto-frictional model to quantify the evolution of magnetic non-potentiality and eruptivity over a solar cycle, emphasizing the role of active region helicity.

Findings

Unsigned helicity is about 10 times higher at solar maximum.

Free magnetic energy increases more than helicity during the cycle.

Eruptivity correlates with sunspot number and active region helicity.

Abstract

The global magnetic field in the solar corona is known to contain free magnetic energy and magnetic helicity above that of a current-free (potential) state. But the strength of this non-potentiality and its evolution over the solar cycle remain uncertain. Here we model the corona over Solar Cycle 24 using a simplified magneto-frictional model that retains the magnetohydrodynamic induction equation but assumes relaxation towards force-free equilibrium, driven by solar surface motions and flux emergence. The model is relatively conservative compared to some others in the literature, with free energy approximately 20-25% of the potential field energy. We find that unsigned helicity is about a factor 10 higher at Maximum than Minimum, while free magnetic energy shows an even greater increase. The cycle averages of these two quantities are linearly correlated, extending a result found previously for active regions. Also, we propose a practical measure of eruptivity for these simulations, and show that this increases concurrently with the sunspot number, in accordance with observed coronal mass ejection rates. Whilst shearing by surface motions generates 50% or more of the free energy and helicity in the corona, we show that active regions must emerge with their own internal helicity otherwise the eruptivity is substantially reduced and follows the wrong pattern over time.