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B. J. LaBonte, D. L. Mickey (University of Hawaii, Institute for Astronomy)
The first study to show the persistence of local field-aligned current systems in active regions was reported by Pevtsov, Canfield, and Metcalf (Astrophys. J., 425, L117, 1994). Their work was limited to a sample of complex, flare-productive regions because of the sensitivity limit of the data from the Haleakala Stokes Polarimeter.
I report here on a new survey of active regions with the Imaging Vector Magnetograph (IVM) at Mees Solar Observatory. The IVM data permit a look at current systems in simpler, more typical active regions, because of better sensitivity, temporal sampling, spatial resolution and field-of-view. Small scale current systems are commonly seen. Transport of current systems by advective processes is commonly seen over times of hours.
This work was supported by NASA grant NAG5-4941 and by a subcontract with LMSAL in support of NASA contract NAS8-40801 for YOHKOH SXT.