Magnetic feature tracking, what determines the speed?

Abstract

Abstract. Recent observations revealed that small magnetic elements abundant at the solar surface move poleward with a velocity which seems to be lower than the plasma velocity U . Guerrero et al. (2011) explained this discrepancy as a consequence of diffusive spreading of the magnetic elements due to a positive radial gradient of |U θ |. As the gradient's sign (inferred by local helioseismology) is still unclear, cases with a negative gradient are studied in this paper. Under this condition, the velocity of the magnetic tracers turns out to be larger than the plasma velocity, in disagreement with the observations. Alternative mechanisms for explaining them independently are proposed. For the turbulent magnetic pumping it is shown that it has to be unrealistically strong to reconcile the model with the observations.