Tracking magnetic flux and helicity from the Sun to Earth

Abstract

Aims. We analyze the complete chain of effects -from Sun to Earth -caused by a solar eruptive event in order to better understand the dynamic evolution of magnetic-field related quantities in interplanetary space, in particular that of magnetic flux and helicity. Methods. We study a series of connected events -a confined C4.5 flare, a flare-less filament eruption and a double-peak M-class flare -that originated in NOAA active region (AR) 12891 on late 2021 November 1 and early 2021 November 2. We deduce the magnetic structure of AR 12891 using stereoscopy and nonlinear force-free (NLFF) magnetic field modeling, allowing us to identify a coronal flux rope and to estimate its axial flux and helicity. Additionally, we compute reconnection fluxes based on flare ribbon and coronal dimming signatures from remote sensing imagery. Comparison to corresponding quantities of the associated magnetic cloud (MC), deduced from in-situ measurements from Solar Orbiter and near-Earth spacecraft, allows us to draw conclusions on the evolution of the associated interplanetary coronal mass ejection. The latter are aided through the application of geometric fitting techniques (graduated cylindrical shell modeling; GCS) and interplanetary propagation models (drag based ensemble modeling; DBEM) to the interplanetary CME. Results. NLFF modeling suggests the host AR's magnetic structure in the form of a left-handed (negative-helicity) sheared arcade/flux rope reaching to altitudes of 8-10 Mm above photospheric levels, in close agreement with the corresponding stereoscopic estimate. Revealed from GCS and DBEM modeling, the ejected flux rope propagated in a self-similar expanding manner through interplanetary space. Comparison of magnetic fluxes and helicities processed by magnetic reconnection in the solar source region and the respective budgets of the MC indicate a considerable contribution from the eruptive process, though the pre-eruptive budgets appear of relevance too.

Three-dimensional relation between coronal dimming, filament eruption, and CME

“…More detailed monitoring (Mandrini et al 2007;Wills-Davey & Attrill 2009;Temmer et al 2011;Dissauer et al 2018a) and magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) simulations (Downs et al 2012;Prasad et al 2020) show that the locations of the so-called "core" dimmings map the footpoints of the erupting flux rope, while the spatial growth of the more wide-spread secondary dimmings indicates the expansion of the overlying magnetic structures of the CME expansion in the low corona. Together with other CME manifestations in the corona, dimmings reveal crucial information about the early configuration of the eruption and its initial parameters (e.g., case studies by Möstl et al 2015;Temmer et al 2017;Dissauer et al 2018b;Heinemann et al 2019;Dumbović et al 2021;Thalmann et al 2023). The importance of coronal dimmings for the study of solar CME/flares, as well as the latest significant results in this area, are discussed in Kazachenko et al (2022).…”