DOES A POLAR CORONAL HOLE'S FLUX EMERGENCE FOLLOW A HALE-LIKE LAW?

Abstract

Recent increases in spatial and temporal resolution for solar telescopes sensitive to EUV and X-ray radiation have revealed the prevalence of transient jet events in polar coronal holes. Using data collected by the X-Ray Telescope on Hinode, Savcheva et al. confirmed the observation, made first by the Soft X-ray Telescope on Yohkoh, that some jets exhibit a motion transverse to the jet outflow direction. The velocity of this transverse motion is, on average, 10 km s{sup -1}. The direction of the transverse motion, in combination with the standard reconnection model for jet production (e.g., Shibata et al.), reflects the magnetic polarity orientation of the ephemeral active region at the base of the jet. From this signature, we find that during the present minimum phase of the solar cycle the jet-base ephemeral active regions in the polar coronal holes had a preferred east-west direction, and that this direction reversed during the cycle's progression through minimum. In late 2006 and early 2007, the preferred direction was that of the active regions of the coming sunspot cycle (cycle 24), but in late 2008 and early 2009 the preferred direction has been that of the active regions of sunspot cycle 25. These findings aremore » consistent with the observations of Wilson et al. suggesting that each cycle of solar activity begins at polar latitudes soon after the onset of the previous cycle.« less