The Relationship Between Coronal Bright Points as Seen in He I ?10830 and the Evolution of the Photospheric Network Magnetic Fields

Abstract

Transient 'dark points' in He I,,10830 are found to be associated with small magnetic bipoles. The number of these dark points varies inversely with the sunspot number. Sampled over a solar cycle, about one-third of the dark points are associated with erupting magnetic flux (ephemeral regions) while the other two-thirds are associated with chance encounters of opposite magnetic polarity features. Since coronal bright points are associated with He I dark points, it is suggested that the inverse correlation of both of these events with the sunspot number results from the higher probability of chance encounters between magnetic network of opposite polarity (larger areas of mixed magnetic polarity) during low levels of solar activity.