Combined Surface Flux Transport and Helioseismic Far-side Active Region Model (FARM)

TL;DR

This paper introduces FARM, a novel method combining helioseismic far-side imaging with surface flux transport modeling to better estimate the Sun's magnetic field, enhancing space-weather predictions.

Contribution

The study presents a new approach integrating seismic far-side active region data into flux transport models, improving magnetic field estimations and space-weather modeling accuracy.

Findings

FARM improves agreement between modeled and observed open-field areas.

Seismic maps reflect the spatial structure of active regions.

Inclusion of far-side regions enhances space-weather prediction models.

Abstract

Maps of the magnetic field at the Sun's surface are commonly used as boundary conditions in space-weather modeling. However, continuous observations are only available from the Sun's Earth-facing side. One commonly used approach to mitigate the lack of far-side information is to apply a surface flux transport (SFT) model to model the evolution of the magnetic field as the Sun rotates. Helioseismology can image active regions on the far side using acoustic oscillations, and hence has the potential to improve the modeled surface magnetic field. In this study, we propose a novel approach for estimating magnetic fields of active regions on the Sun's far side based on seismic measurements, and then include them into a SFT model. To calibrate seismic signal to magnetic field, we apply our SFT model to line-of-sight magnetograms from SDO/HMI to obtain reference maps of global magnetic fields. The resulting maps are compared with seismic maps on the Sun's far side computed using helioseismic holography. The spatial structure of the magnetic field within an active region is reflected in the spatial structure of seismic phase shifts. We assign polarities to the unipolar magnetic-field concentrations based on Hale's law and require approximate flux balance between the two polarities. From 2010 to 2024, we modeled 859 active regions, with an average total unsigned flux of $7.84\cdot 10^{21}$ Mx and an average area of $4.48\cdot 10^{10}$ km$^{2}$. Approximately $4.2\%$ of the active regions were found to have an anti-Hale configuration, which we manually corrected. Comparisons between modeled open-field areas and EUV observations reveal a substantial improvement in agreement when far-side active regions are included. This proof of concept study demonstrates the potential of the ``combined surface flux transport and helioseismic Far-side Active Region Model'' (FARM) to improve space-weather modeling.