9 Conclusion
The foregoing has reviewed some of the topological methods developed to study solar magnetic fields. It
sought to organize the concepts, review their development and show how they have been applied. In the
interest of a manageable scope, it focused on topological methods with some application to magnetic fields
of the solar corona. It did not, however, touch on the extensive literature concerning magnetic helicity, a
fruitful topological technique on its own. A monographdevoted to this topic edited by Brown et al. (1999)
provides an excellent resource for this purpose. Finally, the many consequences that magnetic topology has
on the dynamical evolution of the coronal field were neglected all together. It is hoped, however, that
reviewing the topology alone has provided a valuable first step toward this more important
subject.
