Magnetic Flux Emergence Along the Solar Cycle

Abstract

Flux emergence plays an important role along the solar cycle. Magnetic flux emergence builds sunspot groups and solar activity. The sunspot groups contribute to the large scale behaviour of the magnetic field over the 11 year cycle and the reversal of the North and South magnetic polarity every 22 years. The leading polarity of sunspot groups is opposite in the North and South hemispheres and reverses for each new solar cycle. However the hemispheric rule shows the conservation of sign of the magnetic helicity with positive and negative magnetic helicity in the South and North hemispheres, respectively. MHD models of emerging flux have been developed over the past twenty years but have not yet succeeded to reproduce solar observations. The emergence of flux occurs through plasma layers of very high gradients of pressure and changing of modes from a large β to a low β plasma (<1). With the new armada of high spatial and temporal resolution instruments on the ground and in space, emergence of magnetic flux is observed in tremendous detail and followed during their transit through the upper atmosphere. Signatures of flux emergence in the corona depend on the pre-existing magnetic configuration and on the strength of the emerging flux. We review in this paper new and established models as well as the recent observations.