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Helicity transport in a simulated coronal mass ejection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 June 2011

B. Kliem ,
S. Rust  and
N. Seehafer
B. Kliem
Affiliation:
Institute of Physics and Astronomy, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25, 14476 Potsdam, Germany Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, Holmbury St. Mary, Dorking, Surrey, RH5 6NT, UK Space Science Division, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375, USA
S. Rust
Affiliation:
Institute of Physics and Astronomy, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25, 14476 Potsdam, Germany
N. Seehafer
Affiliation:
Institute of Physics and Astronomy, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25, 14476 Potsdam, Germany
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Abstract

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It has been suggested that coronal mass ejections (CMEs) remove the magnetic helicity 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 helicity 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.

Keywords

magnetic fields(magnetohydrodynamics:) MHDSun: coronal mass ejections
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 6 , Symposium S274: Advances in Plasma Astrophysics , September 2010 , pp. 125 - 128
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2011

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