Signatures of untwisting magnetic field in a small emerging bipole in the solar photosphere

Abstract

We perform a study of fluid motions and its temporal evolution in and around a small bipolar emerging flux region using observations made by the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory. We employ local correlation tracking of the Doppler observations to follow horizontal fluid motions and line-of-sight magnetograms to follow the flux emergence. Changes in vertical vorticity and horizontal divergence are used to derive signatures of evolving twists in the magnetic field. Our analysis reveals that the two polarities of the magnetic flux swirl in opposite directions in the early stages of flux emergence indicating an unwinding of the pre-emergence twists in the magnetic field. We further find that during the emergence, there is an increase in swirly motions in the neighboring nonmagnetic regions. We estimate the magnetic and kinetic energies and find that magnetic energy is about a factor of 10 larger than the kinetic energy. During the evolution, when the magnetic energy decreases, an increase in the kinetic energy is observed indicating transfer of energy from the unwinding of the magnetic flux tube to the surrounding fluid motions. Our results thus demonstrate the presence of pre-emergence twists in an emerging magnetic field that is important in the context of the hemispheric helicity rule warranting a detailed statistical study in this context. Further, our observations point to a possible widespread generation of torsional waves in emerging flux regions due to the untwisting magnetic field with implications for upward energy transport to the corona.