When magnetic flux emerges from beneath the photosphere it displaces the preexisting field in the corona, and a current sheet generally forms at the boundary between the old and new magnetic domains. Reconnection in the current sheet relaxes this hig
hly stressed configuration to a lower energy state. This scenario is most familiar, and most often studied, in flares, where the flux transfer is rapid. We present here a study of steady, quiescent flux transfer occurring at a rate three orders of magnitude below that in a large flare. In particular we quantify the reconnection rate, and related energy release, occurring as new polarity emerges to form Active Region 11112 (2010-10-16T00:S18W14) within a region of preexisting flux. A bright, low lying kernel of coronal loops above the emerging polarity, observed with AIA onboard SDO and XRT onboard Hinode, originally shows magnetic connectivity only between regions of newly emerged flux when overlaid on magnetograms from HMI. Over the course of several days, this bright kernel advances into the preexisting flux. The advancement of an easily visible boundary into the old flux regions allows measurement of the rate of reconnection between old and new magnetic domains. We compare the reconnection rate to the inferred heating of the coronal plasma. To our knowledge, this is the first measurement of steady, quiescent heating related to reconnection. We determine that the newly emerged flux reconnects at a fairly steady rate of 0.38e16 Mx/s over two days, while the radiated power varies between 2~8e25 erg/s over the same time. We find that as much as 40% of the total emerged flux at any given time may have reconnected. The total amount of transferred flux (1e21 Mx) and radiated energy (7.2e30 ergs) are comparable to that of a large M- or small X-class flare, but are stretched out over 45 hours.
When magnetic field in the solar convection zone buoyantly rises to pierce the visible solar surface (photosphere), the atmosphere (corona) above this surface must respond in some way. One response of the coronal field to photospheric forcing is the
creation of stress in the magnetic field, generating large currents and storing magnetic free energy. Using a topological model of the coronal magnetic field we will quantify this free energy. We find the free energy just prior to major flares in active regions to be between 30% and 50% of the potential field energy. In a second way, the coronal field may topologically restructure to form new magnetic connections with newly emerged fields. We use our topological model to quantify the rapid restructuring in the case of solar flare and coronal mass ejections, finding that between 1% and 10% of total active region flux is exchanged. Finally, we use observational data to quantify the slow, quiescent reconnection with preexisting field, and find that for small active regions between 20% and 40% of the total emerged flux may have reconnected at any given time.
The Minimum Current Corona (MCC) model provides a way to estimate stored coronal energy using the number of field lines connecting regions of positive and negative photospheric flux. This information is quantified by the net flux connecting pairs of
opposing regions in a connectivity matrix. Changes in the coronal magnetic field, due to processes such as magnetic reconnection, manifest themselves as changes in the connectivity matrix. However, the connectivity matrix will also change when flux sources emerge or submerge through the photosphere, as often happens in active regions. We have developed an algorithm to estimate the changes in flux due to emergence and submergence of magnetic flux sources. These estimated changes must be accounted for in order to quantify storage and release of magnetic energy in the corona. To perform this calculation over extended periods of time, we must additionally have a consistently labeled connectivity matrix over the entire observational time span. We have therefore developed an automated tracking algorithm to generate a consistent connectivity matrix as the photospheric source regions evolve over time. We have applied this method to NOAA Active Region 11112, which underwent a GOES M2.9 class flare around 19:00 on Oct.16th, 2010, and calculated a lower bound on the free magnetic energy buildup of ~8.25 x 10^30 ergs over 3 days.
