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A Comparison Between Magnetic Charge Topology and Local Correlation Tracking of
Solar Active Regions
Joanna BridgeMontana State University Solar Physics REU Program
August 2010Advisors: Lucas Tarr, Dr. Dana Longcope
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Presentation Overview
Introduction to solar magnetic fields Developing an approach to partitioning and
tracking active regions Current methods for tracking active region
movement Comparing methodologies Conclusions and impacts of this research
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Magnetograms depict line of sight solar magnetic fields
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Magnetograms depict line of sight solar magnetic fields
MDI images were taken at 96 minute intervals
To track active regions, a mask is created that partitions subregions of flux
Potential problems: Over several days, regions
tend to disappear and reappear from time to time
Labels switch seemingly arbitrarily
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A reliable algorithm for pole consistency was developed
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A reliable algorithm for pole consistency was developed
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Three algorithms were used to smooth unruly data
In the end, only two of the original three functions for cleaning up poles were retained
Some hand-fixing of labels was required
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Local Correlation Tracking (LCT) is the current method for tracking regions
LCT tracks movement of individual pixels of magnetograms to determine velocities
Potential problems: Underestimation of
areas of stronger flux Overemphasis on
weaker flux regions
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Creating the mask currently relies on LCT
Mask regions have commonly been generated starting with the final LCT velocity fields and advecting back to the initial mask
Using this mask to analyze the effectiveness of LCT begs the question since the mask was found using LCT to begin with
Our method for creating the mask depends entirely on tessellation algorithms instead of LCT, allowing for both analysis of LCT and our method
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QuickTime™ and aYUV420 codec decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
MCT is used to approximate the flux regions as flux-weighted centroids
The mask is generated from these sources
Magnetic Charge Topology (MCT) tracks source movement
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Velocities can be determined by tracking pole movement
Centroid velocities: [x(i+1) - x(i)] / [time(i+1) - time(i)]
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Comparison between MCT and LCT showed a high degree of correlation
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Comparison between MCT and LCT showed a high degree of correlation
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Comparison between MCT and LCT showed a high degree of correlation
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Comparison between MCT and LCT showed a high degree of correlation
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Further analysis confirms this agreement between the two methods
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Conclusions/Impacts
Finding a repeatable algorithm to create masks not using LCT is feasible and effective
Comparison of LCT and MCT allows for confirmation of the validity of both methods
Where MCT does not match LCT, there is a reasonable explanation for it
Tracking movement of active regions comes into play in energy storage and helicity calculations
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Thank you!
Acknowledgments: Lucas Tarr Dana Longcope NSF The entire solar physics group here at MSU My cohorts here this summer