Coronal magnetic field evolution over the cycle 24

Abstract

The photospheric magnetic field vector is continuously derived from measurements, while reconstruction of the three-dimensional (3D) coronal magnetic field requires modelling with photospheric measurements as a boundary condition. For decades the cycle variation of the magnetic field in the photosphere has been investigated. To present, there is no study to show the evolution of the coronal magnetic flux in the corona, nor the evolution of solar cycle magnetic free energy. The paper aims to analyze the temporal variation of the magnetic field and free magnetic energy in the solar corona for the solar cycle 24 and how the magnetic field behaves in the two hemispheres. We investigate if we can obtain better estimates of the magnetic field at Earth using the nonlinear force-free field (NLFFF) extrapolation method. To model the magnetic field over cycle 24 we apply the NLFFF optimization method to the synoptic vector magnetic maps derived from the observations of Heliospheric and Magnetic Imager (HMI) onboard Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO). We found that during the solar cycle 24, the maximum of the Sun's dynamics is different from the sunspot number (SSN) maximum peak. The major contribution to the total unsigned flux is provided by the flux coming from the magnetic field structures other than sunspots (MSOS) within latitudes between -30 and +30 degrees. The magnetic flux variation during the solar cycle 24 shows a different evolution in the corona than in the photosphere. We found a correlation value of 0.8 between the derived magnetic energy from our model and the flare energy index derived from observations. On average, cycle 24 had a higher number of sunspots in the northern hemisphere (NH) but stronger flux in the southern hemisphere (SH) which could more effectively reach the higher layers of the atmosphere. The coupling between the hemispheres increases with height.

arXiv comment11 pages, 11 figures

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