Resistive magnetic flux emergence and formation of solar active regions

Abstract

Magnetic flux emergence as the mechanism leading to the formation of magnetized structures in the solar atmosphere plays a key role in the dynamic of the Sun. Observed as a whole, emerging flux regions show clear signs of twisted structure, bearing the magnetic free energy necessary to power active events. The high resolution observations of the recent solar observatories (e.g. Hinode, SDO) have revealed how intermittent the magnetic field appears and how various active events induced by flux emergence are. Magnetic field reconstructions methods show that the topology of the field in interspot regions presents a serpentine structure, i.e. field lines having successive U and Ω parts. Associated with the appearance of magnetic polarities, a tremendous number of brief small scale brightening are observed in different photospheric and chromospheric lines, e.g. Ellerman Bombs, along with small scale jet-like structures. These events are believed to be the observational signatures of the multiple magnetic reconnections which enable the magnetic field to emerge further up and magnetically structure the corona above active region. Meanwhile a world-wide effort to numerically model the emergence of magnetic field forming solar active region is been carried on. Using different types of physical paradigm – e.g. idealized magnetohydrodynamic model, advanced treatment of the physical equations, data-driven simulations – these numerical experiments highlight how electric currents can build-up during flux emergence, lead to reconnection and thus explain the formation of the different observed transients.