This thesis presents calculations of the magnetic helicity injection due to rotating sunspots and a determination of the characteristics of the rotating sunspots in the active regions with simple magnetic configurations. Four active regions are investigated to study the relationship between rotating sunspots and magnetic helicity. The observations indicate that significantly more helicity is injected during the period of rotation in polarities with strong magnetic field. This may be a result of the emergence of a magnetic flux rope from below the solar surface. Moreover, our preliminary study on a large sample of 90 active regions shows that the level of flaring activity increases with the rate of helicity injection. Finally, a statistical study is carried out to determine the relation between rotating sunspots and the emergence of magnetic flux tubes. Among 82 active regions which exhibit flux emergence, 93% are associated with rotating sunspots. Among 50 active regions without well-defined flux emergence, 60% of sunspots are observed to be rotating, though relatively slowly. In addition, we find that sense of the rotation (i.e., clockwise or counter-clockwise) of the sunspots shows a weak hemispherical tendency.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:RICE/oai:scholarship.rice.edu:1911/70521 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Contributors | Alexander, David |
| Source Sets | Rice University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Text |
| Format | 85 p., application/pdf |
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