FLARING SOLAR HALE SECTOR BOUNDARIES

The sector structure that organizes the magnetic field of the solar wind into large-scale domains has a clear pattern in the photospheric magnetic field as well. The rotation rate, 27-28.5 days, implies an effectively rigid rotation originating deeper in the solar interior than the sunspots. The photospheric magnetic field is known to be concentrated near that portion (the Hale boundary) in each solar hemisphere, where the change in magnetic sector polarity matches that between the leading and following sunspot polarities in active regions in the respective hemispheres. We report here that flares and microflares also concentrate at the Hale boundaries, implying that flux emergence and the creation of free magnetic energy in the corona also have a direct cause in the deep interior.