Slip-Back Mapping as a Tracker of Topological Changes in Evolving Magnetic Configurations

Abstract

The topology of the coronal magnetic field produces a strong impact on the properties of the solar corona and presumably on the origin of the slow solar wind. To advance our understanding of this impact, we revisit the concept of so-called slip-back mapping (Titov et al. 2009) and adapt it for determining open, closed, and disconnected flux systems that are formed in the solar corona by magnetic reconnection during a given time interval. The developed method allows us, in particular, to describe the magnetic flux transfer between open and closed flux regions via so-called interchange reconnection with an unprecedented level of details. We illustrate the application of this method to the analysis of the global MHD evolution of the solar corona that is driven by an idealized differential rotation of the photospheric plasma.