TY - JOUR A1 - Kliem, Bernhard A1 - Seehafer, Norbert T1 - Helicity shedding by flux rope ejection JF - Astronomy and astrophysics : an international weekly journal N2 - We quantitatively address the conjecture that magnetic helicity must be shed from the Sun by eruptions launching coronal mass ejections in order to limit its accumulation in each hemisphere. By varying the ratio of guide and strapping field and the flux rope twist in a parametric simulation study of flux rope ejection from approximately marginally stable force-free equilibria, different ratios of self- and mutual helicity are set and the onset of the torus or helical kink instability is obtained. The helicity shed is found to vary over a broad range from a minor to a major part of the initial helicity, with self helicity being largely or completely shed and mutual helicity, which makes up the larger part of the initial helicity, being shed only partly. Torus-unstable configurations with subcritical twist and without a guide field shed up to about two-thirds of the initial helicity, while a highly twisted, kink-unstable configuration sheds only about one-quarter. The parametric study also yields stable force-free flux rope equilibria up to a total flux-normalized helicity of 0.25, with a ratio of self- to total helicity of 0.32 and a ratio of flux rope to external poloidal flux of 0.94. These results numerically demonstrate the conjecture of helicity shedding by coronal mass ejections and provide a first account of its parametric dependence. Both self- and mutual helicity are shed significantly; this reduces the total initial helicity by a fraction of ∼0.4--0.65 for typical source region parameters. KW - instabilities KW - magnetic fields KW - magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) KW - Sun KW - corona KW - coronal mass ejections (CMEs) KW - flares Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202142422 SN - 0004-6361 SN - 1432-0746 VL - 659 PB - EDP Sciences CY - Les Ulis ER - TY - GEN A1 - Driel-Gesztelyi, L. van A1 - Baker, Daniel N. A1 - Török, Tibor A1 - Pariat, Etienne A1 - Green, L. M. A1 - Williams, D. R. A1 - Carlyle, J. A1 - Valori, G. A1 - Démoulin, Pascal A1 - Matthews, S. A. A1 - Kliem, Bernhard A1 - Malherbe, J.-M. T1 - Magnetic reconnection driven by filament eruption in the 7 June 2011 event T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - During an unusually massive filament eruption on 7 June 2011, SDO/AIA imaged for the first time significant EUV emission around a magnetic reconnection region in the solar corona. The reconnection occurred between magnetic fields of the laterally expanding CME and a neighbouring active region. A pre-existing quasi-separatrix layer was activated in the process. This scenario is supported by data-constrained numerical simulations of the eruption. Observations show that dense cool filament plasma was re-directed and heated in situ, producing coronal-temperature emission around the reconnection region. These results provide the first direct observational evidence, supported by MHD simulations and magnetic modelling, that a large-scale re-configuration of the coronal magnetic field takes place during solar eruptions via the process of magnetic reconnection. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 608 KW - MHD KW - instabilities KW - Sun: activity KW - magnetic fields KW - coronal mass ejections (CMEs) KW - filaments KW - methods: numerical KW - data analysis Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-415671 IS - 608 SP - 502 EP - 503 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Kliem, Bernhard A1 - Rust, S. A1 - Seehafer, Norbert T1 - Helicity transport in a simulated coronal mass ejection T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - It has been suggested that coronal mass ejections (CMEs) remove the magnetic he-licity of their coronal source region from the Sun. Such removal is often regarded to be necessary due to the hemispheric sign preference of the helicity, which inhibits a simple annihilation by reconnection between volumes of opposite chirality. Here we monitor the relative magnetic he-licity contained in the coronal volume of a simulated flux rope CME, as well as the upward flux of relative helicity through horizontal planes in the simulation box. The unstable and erupting flux rope carries away only a minor part of the initial relative helicity; the major part remains in the volume. This is a consequence of the requirement that the current through an expanding loop must decrease if the magnetic energy of the configuration is to decrease as the loop rises, to provide the kinetic energy of the CME. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 569 KW - magnetic fields KW - MHD KW - coronal mass ejections KW - magnetohydrodynamics KW - sun Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-412907 SN - 1866-8372 IS - 569 SP - 125 EP - 128 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Green, Luci M. A1 - Kliem, Bernhard A1 - Wallace, A. J. T1 - Photospheric flux cancellation and associated flux rope formation and eruption JF - Astronomy and astrophysics : an international weekly journal N2 - Aims. We study an evolving bipolar active region that exhibits flux cancellation at the internal polarity inversion line, the formation of a soft X-ray sigmoid along the inversion line and a coronal mass ejection. The aim is to investigate the quantity of flux cancellation that is involved in flux rope formation in the time period leading up to the eruption. Methods. The active region is studied using its extreme ultraviolet and soft X-ray emissions as it evolves from a sheared arcade to flux rope configuration. The evolution of the photospheric magnetic field is described and used to estimate how much flux is reconnected into the flux rope. Results. About one third of the active region flux cancels at the internal polarity inversion line in the 2.5 days leading up to the eruption. In this period, the coronal structure evolves from a weakly to a highly sheared arcade and then to a sigmoid that crosses the inversion line in the inverse direction. These properties suggest that a flux rope has formed prior to the eruption. The amount of cancellation implies that up to 60% of the active region flux could be in the body of the flux rope. We point out that only part of the cancellation contributes to the flux in the rope if the arcade is only weakly sheared, as in the first part of the evolution. This reduces the estimated flux in the rope to similar to 30% or less of the active region flux. We suggest that the remaining discrepancy between our estimate and the limiting value of similar to 10% of the active region flux, obtained previously by the flux rope insertion method, results from the incomplete coherence of the flux rope, due to nonuniform cancellation along the polarity inversion line. A hot linear feature is observed in the active region which rises as part of the eruption and then likely traces out the field lines close to the axis of the flux rope. The flux cancellation and changing magnetic connections at one end of this feature suggest that the flux rope reaches coherence by reconnection immediately before and early in the impulsive phase of the associated flare. The sigmoid is destroyed in the eruption but reforms quickly, with the amount of cancellation involved being much smaller than in the course of its original formation. KW - Sun: activity KW - Sun: coronal mass ejections (CMEs) KW - magnetic fields KW - magnetic reconnection KW - Sun: photosphere KW - Sun: magnetic topology Y1 - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201015146 SN - 0004-6361 VL - 526 IS - 2 PB - EDP Sciences CY - Les Ulis ER -