The Complexity of Emerging Magnetic Flux during the Lifetime of Solar Ephemeral Regions

Abstract

As a relatively active region, the ephemeral region (ER) exhibits a highly complex pattern of magnetic flux emergence. We aim to study in detail the secondary flux emergences (SFEs), which we define as bipoles that appear close to ERs and finally coalesce with ERs after a period of time. We study SFEs during the whole process, from the emergence to the decay of five ERs observed by the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory. The maximum unsigned magnetic flux for each ER is around 10 ^20 Mx. Each ER has tens of SFEs with an average emerging magnetic flux of approximately 5 × 10 ^18 Mx. The frequency of normalized magnetic flux for all the SFEs follows a power-law distribution with an index of −2.08. The majority of SFEs occur between the positive and negative polarities of an ER, and their growth time is concentrated within 1 hr. The magnetic axis of SFE is found to exhibit a random distribution in the five ERs. We suggest that the relationship between SFEs and ERs can be understood by regarding the photospheric magnetic field observations as cross sections of an emerging magnetic structure. Tracking the evolution of ERs, we propose that these SFEs in ERs may have emerged consequentially from the bundle of flux tubes of ERs and that SFEs are partially emerged Ω-loops.

Keywords

• Solar photosphere
• Solar physics
• Solar observatories
• Solar magnetic flux emergence
• Solar magnetic fields