On the Magnetic Flux Budget in Low‐Corona Magnetic Reconnection and Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejections

Abstract

Wepresentthefirstquantitativecomparisonbetweenthetotalmagneticreconnectionfluxinthelowcoronainthe wake of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and the magnetic flux in magnetic clouds (MCs) that reach 1 AU 2Y3 days after CME onset. The total reconnection flux is measured from flare ribbons, and the MC flux is computed using in situ observations at 1 AU, all ranging from 10 20 to 10 22 Mx. It is found that for the nine studied events in which the association between flares, CMEs,and MCs isidentified, the MCflux iscorrelatedwiththe total reconnection flux! r. Further, the poloidal (azimuthal) MC flux ! p is comparable with the reconnection flux ! r, and the toroidal (axial) MC flux ! t is a fraction of ! r. Events associated with filament eruption do not exhibit a different ! t, p-! r relation from events not accompanied by erupting filaments. The relations revealed between these independently measured physical quantities suggest that for the studied samples, the magnetic flux and twist of interplanetary magnetic flux ropes, reflected by MCs, are highly relevant to low-corona magnetic reconnection during the eruption. We discuss the implications of this result for the formation mechanism of twisted magnetic flux ropes, namely, whether the helical structure of themagnetic flux ropeis largelypre-existing or formed in situ by low-coronamagnetic reconnection.We alsomeasuremagneticfluxencompassedincoronaldimmingregions(! d)anddiscussitsrelationtothereconnection flux inferred from flare ribbons and MC flux.