Some factors affecting the growth and decay of plages

The Mount Wilson coarse array magnetograph data set is analyzed to examine the dependence of growth and decay rates on the tilt angles of the magnetic axes of the regions. It is found that there is a relationship between these quantities which is similar to that found earlier for sunspot groups. Regions near the average tilt angle show larger average (absolute) growth and decay rates. Thepercentage growth and decay rates show minima (in absolute values) at the average tilt angles because the average areas of regions are largest near this angle. This result is similar to that derived earlier for sunspot groups. As in the case of spot groups, this suggests that, for decay, the effect results from the fact that the average tilt angle may represent the simplest subsurface configuration of the flux loop or loops that make up the region. In the case of region growth, it was suggested that the more complicated loop configuration should result in increased magnetic tension in the flux loop, and thus in a slower ascent of the loop to the surface, and thus a slower growth rate. In order to examine this further, the growth and decay rates of plage regions were examined as functions of the magnetic complexity of the regions. In the case of decay, the result was as expected from the model suggested above - that is, the more complex regions decayed more slowly. But for growing regions the effect is the opposite to that expected (more complex regions grow faster, even in terms of percentage growth), so the explanation of the tilt angle effect for growing regions proposed earlier may not be valid.Operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under Cooperative Agreement with the National Science Foundation.