Solar Physics with the Square Kilometre Array

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will be the largest radio telescope ever built, aiming to provide collecting area larger than 1 km$^2$. The SKA will have two independent instruments, SKA-LOW comprising of dipoles organized as aperture arrays in Australia and SKA-MID comprising of dishes in South Africa. Currently the phase-1 of SKA, referred to as SKA1, is in its late design stage and construction is expected to start in 2020. Both SKA1-LOW (frequency range of 50-350 MHz) and SKA1-MID Bands 1, 2, and 5 (frequency ranges of 350-1050, 950-1760, and 4600-15300 MHz, respectively) are important for solar observations. In this paper we present SKA's unique capabilities in terms of spatial, spectral, and temporal resolution, as well as sensitivity and show that they have the potential to provide major new insights in solar physics topics of capital importance including (i) the structure and evolution of the solar corona, (ii) coronal heating, (iii) solar flare dynamics including particle acceleration and transport, (iv) the dynamics and structure of coronal mass ejections, and (v) the solar aspects of space weather. Observations of the Sun jointly with the new generation of ground-based and space-borne instruments promise unprecedented discoveries.Comment: Accepted for publication in Advances in Space Researc

Magnetic helicity transported by flux emergence and shuffling motions in Solar Active Region NOAA 10930

We present a new methodology which can determine magnetic helicity transport by the passage of helical magnetic field lines from sub-photosphere and the shuffling motions of foot-points of preexisting coronal field lines separately. It is well known that only the velocity component which is perpendicular to the magnetic field ($\upsilon_{\perp B}$) has contribution to the helicity accumulation. Here, we demonstrate that $\upsilon_{\perp B}$ can be deduced from horizontal motion and vector magnetograms, under a simple relation of $\upsilon_t = \mu_t + \frac{\upsilon_n}{B_n} B_t$ as suggested by D$\acute{e}$moulin & Berger (2003). Then after dividing $\upsilon_{\perp B}$ into two components, as one is tangential and the other is normal to the solar surface, we can determine both terms of helicity transport. Active region (AR) NOAA 10930 is analyzed as an example during its solar disk center passage by using data obtained by the Spectro-Polarimeter and the Narrowband Filter Imager of Solar Optical Telescope on board Hinode. We find that in our calculation, the helicity injection by flux emergence and shuffling motions have the same sign. During the period we studied, the main contribution of helicity accumulation comes from the flux emergence effect, while the dynamic transient evolution comes from the shuffling motions effect. Our observational results further indicate that for this AR, the apparent rotational motion in the following sunspot is the real shuffling motions on solar surface

What is the spatial distribution of magnetic helicity injected in a solar active region?

Copyright © 2006 EDP Sciences. This article appeared in Astronomy & Astrophysics 452 (2006) and may be found at http://www.aanda.org/index.php?option=article&access=doi&doi=10.1051/0004-6361:20054643Context. Magnetic helicity is suspected to play a key role in solar phenomena such as flares and coronal mass ejections. Several investigations have recently computed the photospheric flux of magnetic helicity in active regions. The derived spatial maps of the helicity flux density, called GA, have an intrinsic mixed-sign patchy distribution. Aims. Pariat et al. (2005) recently showed that GA is only a proxy of the helicity flux density, which tends to create spurious polarities. They proposed a better proxy, Gθ. We investigate here the implications of this new approach on observed active regions. Methods. The magnetic data are from MDI/SoHO instrument and the photospheric velocities are computed by local correlation tracking. Maps and temporal evolution of GA and Gθ are compared using the same data set for 5 active regions. Results. Unlike the usual GA maps, most of our Gθ maps show almost unipolar spatial structures because the nondominant helicity flux densities are significantly suppressed. In a few cases, the Gθ maps still contain spurious bipolar signals. With further modelling we infer that the real helicity flux density is again unipolar. On time-scales larger than their transient temporal variations, the time evolution of the total helicity fluxes derived from GA and Gθ show small differences. However, unlike GA, with Gθ the time evolution of the total flux is determined primarily by the predominant-signed flux while the nondominant-signed flux is roughly stable and probably mostly due to noise. Conclusions. Our results strongly support the conclusion that the spatial distribution of helicity injected into active regions is much more coherent than previously thought: on the active region scale the sign of the injected helicity is predominantly uniform. These results have implications for the generation of the magnetic field (dynamo) and for the physics of both flares and coronal mass ejections

Behavior of Solar Cycles 23 and 24 Revealed by Microwave Observations

Using magnetic and microwave butterfly diagrams, we compare the behavior of solar polar regions to show that (i) the polar magnetic field and the microwave brightness temperature during the solar minimum substantially diminished during the cycle 23/24 minimum compared to the 22/23 minimum. (ii) The polar microwave brightness temperature (b) seems to be a good proxy for the underlying magnetic field strength (B). The analysis indicates a relationship, B = 0.0067Tb - 70, where B is in G and Tb in K. (iii) Both the brightness temperature and the magnetic field strength show north-south asymmetry most of the time except for a short period during the maximum phase. (iv) The rush-to-the-pole phenomenon observed in the prominence eruption activity seems to be complete in the northern hemisphere as of March 2012. (v) The decline of the microwave brightness temperature in the north polar region to the quiet-Sun levels and the sustained prominence eruption activity poleward of 60oN suggest that solar maximum conditions have arrived at the northern hemisphere. The southern hemisphere continues to exhibit conditions corresponding to the rise phase of solar cycle 24.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letters on April 10, 201

Relationship between wave processes in sunspots and quasi-periodic pulsations in active region flares

A phenomenological relationship between oscillations in a sunspot and quasi-periodic pulsations (QPP) in flaring energy releases at an active region (AR) above the sunspot is established. The analysis of the microwave emission recorded by the Nobeyama Radioheliograph at 17 GHz shows a gradual increase in the power of the 3-min oscillation train in the sunspot associated with AR 10756 before flares in this AR. The flaring light curves are found to be bursty with a period of 3 min. Our analysis of the spatial distribution of the 3-min oscillation power implies that the oscillations follow from sunspots along coronal loops towards the flaring site. It is proposed that QPP in the flaring energy releases can be triggered by 3-min slow magnetoacoustic waves leaking from sunspots