A Study of Pre-flare Solar Coronal Magnetic Fields: Magnetic Flux Ropes

Heliospheric evolution of solar wind small‐scale magnetic flux ropes

[1] We present results from the first comprehensive small‐scale flux rope survey between 0.3 and 5.5 AU using the Helios 1, Helios 2, IMP 8, Wind, ACE, and Ulysses spacecrafts to examine their occurrence rate, properties, and evolution. Small‐scale flux ropes are similar to magnetic clouds and can be modeled as a constant‐alpha, force‐free, cylindrically symmetric flux rope. They differ from ma...

Chaos in magnetic flux ropes

Magnetic flux ropes immersed in a uniform magnetoplasma are observed to twist about themselves, writhe about each other and rotate about a central axis. They are kink unstable and smash into one another as they move. Each collision results in magnetic field line reconnection and the generation of a quasi-separatrix layer. Three-dimensional magnetic field lines are computed by conditionally aver...

Reconstruction of Solar Coronal Linear Force-Free Magnetic Field

Magnetic Flux Cancellation and Coronal Magnetic Energy

I investigate the processes at work in the cancellation of normal magnetic flux in solar magnetograms and study the relationships between cancellation and the budget of free magnetic energy in the coronal magnetic field that can power solar flares and CMEs. After defining cancellation mathematically, I derive equations that quantify the evolution of free magnetic energy in response to arbitrary...

Coalescence of two magnetic flux ropes via collisional magnetic reconnection

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