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Electric currents and Lorentz forces derived by vector magnetographic measurements 1. Electric currents in a flux bundle
Author(s) -
Hofmann A.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
astronomische nachrichten
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.394
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1521-3994
pISSN - 0004-6337
DOI - 10.1002/asna.2113120115
Subject(s) - physics , bundle , electric field , electric current , azimuth , current (fluid) , observatory , flux (metallurgy) , magnetic field , magnetic flux , current density , lorentz force , astrophysics , optics , materials science , quantum mechanics , metallurgy , composite material , thermodynamics
We investigate the distribution of vertical electric current densities derived from nearly simultaneous measurements of the photospheric vector magnetic field made by the magnetographs of the Sayan Observatory (Irkutsk) and the Potsdam Solar Observatory. A flux bundle left the spot investigated nearly horizontally and was isolated enough to enable the discovery of two current density contours dominated by azimuthal currents flowing around the bundle. The countours were situated nearly symmetrically on both sides of the strongly inclined axis of the bundle. By means of three assumptions concerning the symmetry of the bundle we give a way to separate from each other the field‐aligned and the azimuthal components of the currents. The analysis of one of the Potsdam magnetograms yielded a current density of (7.2 ± 4.3) · 10 ‐2 Am ‐2 and a current strength of (6.1 ± 3.6) · 10 11 A for the azimuthal current.