Collective Vortex Dynamics: From Isolated Vortices to Their Communities

Abstract Small-scale vortical motions in the upper solar atmosphere are abundant and occupy about 2.8% of the photosphere at any given time. Although considerable work has focused on the detection and analysis of individual solar vortices, the interconnected and multiscale behaviour of these coherent structures remains largely unexplored. We present a methodology for studying this behaviour through vortex interactions to improve our understanding of how small- and large-scale photospheric flows contribute to energy transfer into the upper solar atmosphere and to the driving of solar activity. We represent vortices as a network of interacting structures. We apply a community detection algorithm to derive an optimal reduced network composed of highly interconnected vortex groups. From the interaction patterns and group structure, we define three roles within each community: peripheral, connector, and hub. We then track both vortex communities and their member vortices from the photosphere into the chromosphere and across their lifetimes. On average, vortices assigned to these roles persist to greater heights in the chromosphere and have longer lifetimes than unclassified vortices. This shows that community detection can identify vortices with greater dynamical influence on the upper solar atmosphere. We also find that 36.4%–59.5% of vortex communities exhibit global periodic behaviour following a helical path. This collective vortical motion may indicate an enhanced mechanism for wave excitation. Solar vortical community detection, therefore, offers a new framework for studying solar vortices and a new perspective on the importance of collective vortex dynamics.