HR: 1340h
AN: SH13A-1140    [Abstracts]
TI: Observations of Separator Reconnection to an Emerging Active Region
AU: * Longcope, D W
EM: dana@solar.physics.montana.edu
AF: Montana State University, Dept. of Physics, Bozeman, MT 59717 United States
AU: Cirtain, J
EM: jcirtain@solar.physics.montana.edu
AF: Montana State University, Dept. of Physics, Bozeman, MT 59717 United States
AU: McKenzie, D
EM: mckenzie@solar.physics.montana.edu
AF: Montana State University, Dept. of Physics, Bozeman, MT 59717 United States
AU: Scott, J
AF: Montana State University, Dept. of Physics, Bozeman, MT 59717 United States
AB: Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) observations of an emerging active region are used to study separator reconnection in the corona. We follow each EUV loop connecting the emerging polarity to a nearby existing active region. Their geometrical resemblance to post-reconnection field lines from a magnetic model of the active region pair implicates separator reconnection in their production. While some reconnection is evident within 7 hours of emergence onset, the most intense period occurs after a one-day delay. The sum of cross sections of all observed loops accounts for only one-fifth of the magnetic flux whose transfer the model predicts. We suggest that the remaining loops remain at temperatures too high, or at densities too low, to be detected in our EUV data. The most intense reconnection requires as much as 260 MV along the coronal separator, however, the observed loops suggests that the flux is transfered as discrete bundles of 1.0e18 Mx each. The reconnection appears to directly dissipate only a small fraction of the energy released, while the rest is dissipated within the post-reconnection flux over the ensuing 6 or more hours, during which the flux remains visible. The net energy released, and ultimately disiipated, is consistent with the amount which could be stored during the 24-hour delay between emergence and reconnection. This work was supported by NASA grant NAG5-10489
DE: 7509 Corona
DE: 7524 Magnetic fields
SC: SPA-Solar and Heliospheric Physics [SH]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting