Session 35 - Solar Magnetic Fields.
Display session, Tuesday, June 11
Tripp Commons,

## [35.03] Magnetic Chirality and Coronal Reconnection

A. A. Pevtsov, R. C. Canfield, A. N. McClymont (IfA)

We have used Mees Solar observatory vector magnetograms and Yohkoh Soft X-Ray Telescope images to study the role of magnetic chirality (handedness) in the trans-equatorial reconnection of active regions. Transequatorial reconnections are identified using SXT images. The chirality of the active regions is inferred from vector magnetograms and SXT images. Our results indicate that active regions reconnect preferentially with others of the same chirality. We have identified the 9 closest pairs of active regions separated by up to \pm 20\deg in latitude and longitude. All six pairs of active regions having the same sign of chirality showed transequatorial connection. All three pairs of active regions of opposite chirality indicated no inter-connection. Less close pairs of active regions, with separation up to \pm 40\deg in latitude and \pm 20\deg in longitude, showed the same tendency: 15 of 17 regions with the same chirality were inter-connected in the corona, and 8 of 10 regions having the opposite chirality did not show inter-connection. We explain this result with a simple model of current-system closure.