Analysis of force-free fields in the solar corona at flare sites

Abstract

Force-free magnetic fields can be used to compute the magnetic structure above active regions where the field strength is large. Using vector magnetograms for two active regions that gave rise to solar flares, the force-free fields are obtained for times before and after the flare. The current density in the upper atmosphere obtained from nonlinear force-free fields is analyzed using Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) methods to determine how it is distributed around the times of flare occurrence. Regions of localized and relatively intense currents are sought at the different scales since these are usually linked to magnetic reconnection. It is found that the probability distribution functions (PDF) for small scales exhibit long tails and they are compared for times before and after the flare. Previous to the flare they seem to be slightly wider but not significant enough to draw a definite conclusion. This is likely due to break down of the applicability of the Force-Free fields after the flare. The effect of having long-tailed PDFs is equivalent to the one found in temperature fluctuations about the flare occurrence (1) which could point to a correlation between electrical currents and temperature. It is also obtained that the energy content in the middle scales of the currents is larger before than after the flare which would point to a magnetic dissipation at those scales during the flare.