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G. Barnes, K.D. Leka (Colorado Research Associates), D.W. Longcope (Dept. of Physics, Montana State University)
Do photospheric magnetic fields show systematic changes which precede energetic events such as solar flares? The answer has proved elusive. We address this question by examining vector magnetic flux maps from the U. Hawai`i Imaging Vector Magnetograph (Mickey et al. 1996), which obtain full Stokes spectra over entire active regions every 4 minutes on average. We compare numerous parameters derived from the vector magnetograms of flaring active regions to those from comparable non-flaring active regions. In addition, we determine quantitative measurements of the complexity of the field topology using the Minimum-Current Corona analysis (Longcope 1996). The goal is to determine quantitative measurements of the complexity of the field topology, and determine whether variations in those measures correlate with or precede flare events.
This project was funded by AFOSR contract F49620-00-C-0004.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: graham@co-ra.com
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 34
© 2002. The American Astronomical Soceity.