Latitudinal variation of helicity of photospheric magnetic fields

Using a 1988-1994 data set of original photospheric vector magnetograms as well as published data, we have studied the average magnetic helicity of 69 diverse active regions, adopting the linear force-free field parameter alpha as a measure. This average value was determined by minimizing the differences between the computed constant-alpha force-free and observed horizontal magnetic fields. The average magnetic helicity shows a sign difference at the 2 sigma level in opposite hemispheres. In our data set, 76% of the active regions in the northern hemisphere have negative helicity, and 69% in the southern hemisphere, positive. Although the data show considerable variation from one active region to the next, the data set as a whole suggest that the magnitude of the average helicity increases with solar latitude, starting at zero near the equator, reaches a maximum near 15 deg - 25 deg in both hemispheres, and drops back toward smaller values avove 35 deg - 40 deg. Qualitative comparison with published models shows that such latitudinal variation of the average magnetic helicity may result from either turbulent convective motions or differential rotation, although our studies of rotating sunspots lead us to favor the former.