Long transequatorial interconnecting loops of the new solar cycle

We study two long transequatorial loops connecting high-latitude regions of the new solar cycle. These loops (with lengths of 47 and 61 heliographic degrees) provide evidence that the upper length limit of 37° found by Chase et al. (1976) from Skylab data was determined simply by the typical distanc...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Solar physics 1999-06, Vol.187 (1), p.33-44
Main Authors: FárnÍk, F, Karlický, M, Svestka, Z
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Equator
Sun
Sunspots
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We study two long transequatorial loops connecting high-latitude regions of the new solar cycle. These loops (with lengths of 47 and 61 heliographic degrees) provide evidence that the upper length limit of 37° found by Chase et al. (1976) from Skylab data was determined simply by the typical distances between northern and southern active regions during the period of Skylab observations. We find strong support for the idea that these long interconnecting loops originate through reconnection of field lines extending from the two active regions towards and beyond the equator, and confirm the earlier finding by Canfield, Pevtsov, and McClymont (1996) that only field lines from active regions with the same chirality reconnect. As we are not aware of any longitudinal (E-W) loops of comparable lengths, we suggest that it is mainly the solar differential rotation which drives the reconnection of latitudinal (N-S) field lines.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
ISSN:0038-0938
1573-093X
DOI:10.1023/A:1005123319045