Global complexes of activity

A new concept of “Global Complexes of Activity” on the Sun is presented, which brings together objects associated with both global and local fields in a single framework. Activity complexes have traditionally been identified purely from observations of active regions. We show here that a global complex also includes coronal holes and active regions. Our analysis is based on a large dataset on magnetic fields on various scales, SOHO/MDI observations of active regions and magnetic fields, and UV observations of coronal holes. It is shown that the evolution of coronal holes and active regions are parts of a single process. The relationships between the fields on different scales during the generation of the cycle is discussed.     

Open magnetic fields on the Sun and solar wind parameters at the Earth’s orbit

It is shown that the parameters of the solar-wind magnetic field are determined by regions in coronal holes at distances of 1.1–1.4 solar radii, where the field lines are radial at low heights. Expanding further in a narrow nozzle or funnel, the field lines become radial throughout the unipolar region at 2.5 solar radii. Hence, the traditional approach of comparing the characteristics of the interplanetary field at the Earth’s orbit and at the corresponding helio-projection point on the Sun is not quite correct. It gives good results for the signs and sector structure of the field; however, the magnitude of the field is formed in a more extensive area. Taking this into account, we can correlate the field values on the Sun with the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF), and thus explain the absence of weak fields in the vicinity of the IMF neutral line (the two-peaked nature of the distribution).     

Studying coronal holes through observations of an HeI infrared line and the Hα line

New results from electrophotometric scanning of the solar disk in the HeI λ 10830 Å and H_α lines are presented. The intensity at the center of the HeI λ 10830.30 Å line is 1–3% higher in the regions of coronal holes than in quiescent regions; this is accompanied by a decrease in the size and contrast of the chromospheric network compared to the network in quiescent regions. Our observations in the HeI line revealed chains of “dark points” surrounding coronal holes. The H_α±0.5 observations show increased velocities of ascent near the dark points compared to the velocities inside coronal holes and in quiescent regions. It is proposed that the intensification and acceleration of the flows of solar plasma from the dark points are due to reconnection of the magnetic fields of the bipolar chromospheric network and the predominantly unipolar magnetic field inside the coronal holes. Our observations suggest that the same reconnection process takes place near the temperature minimum, in the presence of certain conditions at the boundary between coronal holes and bipolar active regions. The reconnection process produces plasma flows from the chromosphere to the corona, which are sufficient to form prominences.     

The increase in the magnetic flux from the polar regions of the Sun over the last 120 years

The latitudes of the zonal boundaries of the global magnetic field of the Sun are determined from the magnetic neutral lines on synoptic Hα maps obtained during 1878–1999. The area of the polar zone occupied by magnetic field of a single polarity at solar minima has doubled over the last 120 years. This provides an explanation for the secular increase in heliospheric characteristics, which differs from the two-fold increase of the magnetic field strength predicted for this period. The temporal variations of the magnetic flux from the polar regions and their role in global changes of the Earth’s climate are discussed in connection with secular variations in the structure of the internal magnetic field of the Sun.     

The rotation of the Sun as a star from the green-line emission of the entire corona

A new representation for the database created by J. Sykora on the 5303 Å Fe XIV line emission observed from 1939 to 2001 is proposed. Observations of the corona at an altitude of 60″ above the limb reduced to a uniform photometric scale provide estimates of the emission of the entire visible solar surface. It is proposed to use the resulting series of daily measurements as a new index of the solar activity, GLSun (The Green-Line Sun). This index is purely observational and is free of the model-dependent limitations imposed on other indices of coronal activity. GLSun describeswell both the cyclic activity and the rotational modulation of the brightness of the corona of the Sun as a star. The GLSun series was subject to a wavelet analysis similar to that applied to long-term variability in the chromospheric emission of late-type active stars. We obtain that the brightness inhomogeneities in the solar corona rotate more slowly during epochs of high activity than their average rotational rate over the entire time observations. The time interval of slower rotation of the inhomogeneities is close to the epoch when the Sun’s field represents a horizontal magnetic dipole in each activity cycle, but is somewhat longer than the duration of the polarity reversal in both hemispheres. The difference between the periods for the slower and mean rotation exceeds three days, as is typical for some stars with higher but less regular activity than solar one. The importance of these findings for dynamo theory for the origin and evolution of the magnetic fields of the Sun and other late-type stars is briefly discussed.     

Some properties of the joining of solar filaments

Some possibilities for the reconnection of magnetic-field lines of solar filaments that approach when the photospheric polarity inversion lines change their positions, are discussed. The interaction between filaments depends on their internal properties, which are determined by the filament chirality, or the sign of the helicity of the filament magnetic field. In quadrupolar magnetic configurations, filaments with the same chirality can exchange their halves. Filaments with opposite chirality rupture after the reconnection of the polarity inversion lines, since the two fragments of the different filaments cannot be connected continuously. The morphology and connectivity of the filaments are analyzed using daily Hα filtergrams obtained over the period of maximum activity of the 23rd solar cycle. Examples of alterations of the filament connectivity occuring during the evolution of photospheric fields are presented.     

Restructuring of the Solar Magnetic Fields and Flare Activity Centers in Cycle 24

The development of the solar magnetic activity in cycle 24 has been analyzed. It has been shown that the significant north–south asymmetry of magnetic activity was accompanied by the asynchronous reorganization of solar magnetic fields in the northern and southern hemispheres. The formation of unipolar magnetic regions after the decay of activity centers has been studied. The meridional transport of unipolar magnetic regions leading to changes in the zonal structure of the solar magnetic field has been shown. Long-lived centers of flare activity have been found to exist during the periods of magnetic field restructuring. The spatiotemporal analysis of the flare ensemble making it possible to diagnose non-stationary processes in the solar atmosphere has been shown.     

Active longitudes and north-south asymmetry of the activity the Sun as manifestations of its relic magnetic field

The distributions of dominant magnetic polarities in synoptic maps of photospheric magnetic fields and their extrapolations to the corona based on Stanford Observatory data are studied. Both dipolar and quadrupolar magnetic patterns are detected in the distributions of dominant polarities in the near-equatorial region of the photosphere for activity cycles 21, 22, and 23. The field in these patterns often has opposite signs on opposite sides of the equator, with this sign changing from cycle to cycle. A longitude-time analysis of variations of the mean solar magnetic field shows that the contribution of the large-scale magnetic patterns to the total field does not exceed 20 µT. The most stable magnetic structures at a quasi-source surface in the solar corona are separated by approximately 180° in heliographic longitude and are close to dipolar. The nature and behavior of these large-scale magnetic patterns are interpreted as a superposition of cyclic dynamo modes and the nonaxially symmetric relic field of the Sun. The contribution of the relic field to the mean solar magnetic field appears as a weak but stable rotational modulation whose amplitude does not exceed 8 µT.     

The evolution of solar-like activity of low-mass stars

An analysis of data on chromospheric activity obtained in the framework of exoplanet-search programs is presented. Observations of 1334 stars showing that the chromospheric activity of the Sun is clearly higher than for the vast majority of stars in the solar vicinity are used. A comparison of chromospheric and coronal activity led to the identification of a significant group of stars with a low level of chromospheric activity, whose coronal radiation spans wide ranges. There are reasons to believe that the chromospheric and coronal activities of one group of stars decrease simultaneously as the rotation decelerates, while, in stars of the other group, the chromospheric activity diminishes, but their coronas remain stronger than that of the Sun. Features of cyclic activity of the Sun are discussed. This enables us to associate differences in the behavior of the activity with different depths of the convective zones of stars of spectral classes earlier and later than G6. Arguments in favor of a two-layer dynamo and different roles of the large-scale and small-scale magnetic fields in the formation and evolution of activity are formulated. Age estimations based on activity levels (gyrochronology) must be carried out differently for these different groups of stars.     

The proportion of hot and cold regions in the polar solar corona during 1957–2002

Occultation observations of the intensity of the FeXIV 530.3 nm and FeX 637.4 nm forbidden lines detected at the Kislovodsk Mountain Station during 1957–2002, indicate long-term changes in the structure of the solar corona. The monthly average intensities of green (KI_530.3) and red (KI_637.4) spectral lines are calculated for all latitudes (0°–90°) and for a high-latitude zone (45°–90°). A strong correlation (r = 0.91) between the green KI_530.3 line intensity and the Wolf numbers is found and used to fill gaps in the observations. The ratio KI_637.4/KI_530.3 takes on its maximum value at the solar minimum. The KI _637.4 ^p /KI _530.3 ^p ratio in the high-latitude solar zone (45°–90°) increased by more than a factor of two during 1957–2002. This means that the fraction of cool regions in the polar corona has more than doubled over these years. We suggest that this increase in the number of cool regions is related to an increase in the area of the polar solar zones occupied by magnetic field of a single polarity at the solar minimum, and possibly to an increase in the area occupied by polar coronal holes. This is associated with long-term variations in the internal structure of the Sun.     

Long-term variations in the asymmetry of the magnetic field of the sun and heliosphere

The asymmetry of the magnetic field of the Sun and its manifestation in the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) are studied. The dominant magnetic polarity of the radial component of the IMF alternates from cycle to cycle, but with an overall systematic dominance of polarity directed toward the Sun. The global asymmetry is also manifest in the component of the IMF perpendicular to the plane of the solar equator. The dominance of positive values of B _z together with an appreciable linear trend in the cumulative sum of this quantity is interpreted as a manifestation of a relic solar magnetic field. The strength of this relic magnetic field near the Earth is estimated to be 0.048 ± 0.015 nT, based on the growth of the linear component of the cumulative sum of B _z . Time intervals, in which negative values of the B _z component of the IMF dominate and enhanced geomagnetic activity is observed, are identified. Our analysis of solar and heliospheric magnetic fields in an integrated representation has enabled us to compare various types of measurements and estimate their stability.     

The large-scale solar magnetic field and 11-year activity cycles

Magnetic Hα synoptic maps of the Sun for 1915–1999 are analyzed and the intensities of spherical harmonics of the large-scale solar magnetic field computed. The possibility of using these Hα maps as a database for investigations of long-term variations of solar activity is demonstrated. As an example, the magnetic-field polarity distribution for the Hα maps and the analogous polarity distribution for the magnetographic maps of the Stanford observatory for 1975–1999 are compared. An activity index A(t) is introduced for the large-scale magnetic field, which is the sum of the magnetic-moment intensities for the dipole and octupole components. The 11-year cycle of the large-scale solar magnetic field leads the 11-year sunspot cycle by, on average, 5.5 years. It is concluded that the observed weak large-scale solar magnetic field is not the product of the decay of strong active-region fields. Based on the new data, the level of the current (23rd) solar-activity cycle and some aspects of solar-cycle theory are discussed.     

Three types of flows in the structure of the solar wind

An experimental study of the source and formation of large-scale streams in the solar wind is presented. Radio-astronomical data from 1998 are compared with optical SOHO observations and solar coronal magnetic fields calculated from Zeeman data obtained at the Wilcox Observatory. A correlation between the geometry of the solar-wind transition region and the strength of coronal magnetic fields is revealed. For the moderate heliolatitudes studied, this correlation divides into three branches corresponding to three types of coronal magnetic-field structures: open structures with field lines escaping into interplanetary space, closed structures with loop-like field lines, and intermediate structures including both open and closed configurations. High-speed streams of solar wind originate in regions with open magnetic structures. These structures are connected with the lateral lobes of streamers at moderate heliolatitudes. Low-speed flows originate above closed magnetic structures, typical of the main bodies of streamers. The lowest-speed solar-wind flows are not associated with coronal streamer structures, and originate in coronal regions with intermediate magnetic configurations simultaneously containing open and closed field lines. In these regions, the white-light corona becomes an extended and amorphous area with high luminosity, which stratifies into a radial structure with narrow stripes at higher resolution.     

Positional evolution of magnetic foci in the polar regions of the Sun with the phase of the solar activity cycle

The behavior of magnetic foci—intersection points of tangents to ray structures in the polar corona of the Sun—is studied. This behavior reflects the evolution of the large-scale magnetic field near the poles, and is one of only a few sources of information on the polar magnetic field of the Sun. For the first time, the positions of the magnetic foci are plotted as a function of the solar-cycle phase for a full cycle, based not only on total-eclipse images but also on daily coronal observations in the FeIX and FeX (171 Å) lines carried out with the EIT telescope on the SOHO satellite. The temporal behavior of the foci over a cycle differs appreciably from that inferred from isolated observations during eclipses. The curve agrees fairly well with the model of the global-field evolution suggested by us previously.     

Two modes of the differential rotation of the solar corona

The differential rotation of the solar corona is studied using the brightness of the Fe XIV 530.3 nm green coronal line collected over 5.5 solar-activity cycles. The total observed velocity of the coronal rotation is analyzed as a superposition of two modes—fast and slow. A technique for separating two data series composing the initial data set and corresponding to the two differential-rotation modes of the solar corona is proposed. The first series is obtained by averaging the initial data set over six successive Carrington rotations; this series corresponds to long-lived, large-scale coronal regions. The second series is the difference between the initial data and the averaged series, and corresponds to relatively quickly varying coronal component. The coronal rotation derived from the first series coincides with the fast mode detected earlier using the initial data set; i.e., the synodic period of this mode is 27 days at the equator, then weakly increases with latitude, slightly exceeding 28 days at high latitudes. The second series describes a slow rotation displaying a synodic period of about 34 days. This coincides with the period of rotation of the high-latitude corona derived by M. Waldmeier for polar faculae. We expect that coronal objects corresponding to the fast mode are associated with magnetic fields on the scales typical for large activity complexes. The slow mode may be associated with weak fields on small scales.     

The Nature of Variations in Anomalies of the Chemical Composition of the Solar Corona with the 11-Year Cycle

Evidence that the distribution of the abundances of admixtures with low first-ionization potentials (FIP < 10 eV) in the lower solar corona could be associated with the typology of the largescale magnetic field is presented. Solar observations show an enhancement in the abundances of elements with low FIPs compared to elements with high FIPs (>10 eV) in active regions and closed magnetic configurations in the lower corona. Observations with the ULYSSES spacecraft and at the Stanford Solar Observatory have revealed strong correlations between the manifestation of the FIP effect in the solar wind, the strength of the open magnetic flux (without regard to sign), and the ratio of the large-scale toroidal and poloidal magnetic fields at the solar surface. Analyses of observations of the Sun as a star show that the enhancement of the abundances of admixtures with low FIPs in the corona compared to their abundances in the photosphere (the FIP effect) is closely related to the solar-activity cycle and also with variations in the topology of the large-scale magnetic field. A possible mechanism for the relationship between the FIP effect and the spectral type of a star is discussed in the framework of solar–stellar analogies.     

Relationship between the brightness in the coronal green line and magnetic fields on various scales

The relationship between the brightness in the FeXIV 530.3 nm coronal green line and magnetic fields on various scales in the corona is studied quantitatively. The cross-correlations of the corresponding synoptic maps for 1977–2001 have been calculated. Maps of the brightness of the coronal green line are constructed using daily monitoring data. Maps of the magnetic field are constructed separately for fields on large and small spatial scales, based on computations in a potential approximation using photospheric observations for distances of 1.1R _⊙ carried out at the Wilcox Solar Observatory. The correlations between the brightness in the coronal green line and the magnetic-field strengths on various scales as a function of latitude have a cyclic character. The correlation coefficients in the spot-formation zone are positive. Here, the green-line brightness corresponds mainly to the strength of small-scale fields, corresponding to the sizes of large active regions and activity complexes. The correlation coefficients are sign-variable above 40° latitude, and reach their greatest positive and negative values at the cyclemaximum and minimum. Larger-scale fields influence the green-line brightness at higher latitudes and near the phase of the cycle minimum. The results obtained can be used to investigate mechanisms for heating the corona. The relationship between the results obtained and the subsurface and deep solar dynamos are also discussed.     

Can Superflares Occur on the Sun? A View from Dynamo Theory

Recent data from the Kepler mission has revealed the occurrence of superflares in Sun-like stars which exceed by far any observed solar flares in released energy. Radionuclide data do not provide evidence for occurrence of superflares on the Sun over the past eleven millennia. Stellar data for a subgroup of superflaring Kepler stars are analysed in an attempt to find possible progenitors of their abnormal magnetic activity. A natural idea is that the dynamo mechanism in superflaring stars differs in some respect from that in the Sun. We search for a difference in the dynamo-related parameters between superflaring stars and the Sun to suggest a dynamo mechanism as close as possible to the conventional solar/stellar dynamo but capable of providing much higher magnetic energy. Dynamo based on joint action of differential rotation and mirror asymmetric motions can in principle result in excitation of two types of magnetic fields. First of all, it is well-known in solar physics dynamo waves. The point is that another magnetic configuration with initial growth and further stabilisation can also be excited. For comparable conditions, magnetic field of second configuration is much stronger than that of the first one just because dynamo does not spend its energy for periodic magnetic field inversions but uses it for magnetic field growth. We analysed available data from the Kepler mission concerning the superflaring stars in order to find tracers of anomalous magnetic activity. As suggested in a recent paper [1], we find that anti-solar differential rotation or anti-solar sign of the mirror-asymmetry of stellar convection can provide the desired strong magnetic field in dynamo models. We confirm this concept by numerical models of stellar dynamos with corresponding governing parameters. We conclude that the proposed mechanism can plausibly explain the superflaring events at least for some cool stars, including binaries, subgiants and, possibly, low-mass stars and young rapid rotators.     

Radio sounding of the circumsolar plasma using polarized pulsar pulses

We present the results of radio sounding observations probing the inner solar wind near the minimum of the solar-activity cycle, using polarized pulses from PSR B0525+21 and PSR B0531+21 received when the lines of sight toward these pulsars were close to the Sun. The observations were obtained in June 2005 and June 2007 on the Large Phased Array of the Lebedev Physical Institute at 111 MHz. An upper limit for the scattering of giant pulses from PSR B0531+21 due to their passage through the turbulent solar-wind plasma is determined. The arrival-time delays for pulses from PSR B0531+21 are used to derive the radial dependence of the mean density of the circumsolar plasma. The resulting density distribution indicates that the acceleration of fast, high-latitude solar-wind outflows continues to heliocentric distances of 5–10R _⊙, where R _⊙ is the solar radius. The mean plasma density at heliocentric distances of about 5R _⊙ is 1.4 × 10⁴ cm^?3, substantially lower than at the solar-activity maximum. This is associated with the presence of polar coronal holes. The Faraday rotation measure at heliocentric distances of 6–7R _⊙ is estimated. Deviations of the spatial distribution of the magnetic field from spherical symmetry are comparatively modest in the studied range of heliocentric distances.