The Granular Magnetic Fields of the Quiet Sun

Lin, Haosheng; Rimmelé, Thomas

doi:10.1086/306925

Cited by 162 publications

(149 citation statements)

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“…A few decades ago, this internetwork (IN) was thought to be almost devoid of magnetic fields, and consequently its relevance for the solar magnetism was not obvious (Livingston & Harvey 1975;Smithson 1975). However, with the present instrumentation, when the spatial resolution is around 1 00 , the quiet Sun turns out to be full of magnetic fields (Grossmann-Doerth et al 1996;Lin & Rimmele 1999;Sánchez Almeida & Lites 2000), with an unsigned flux density measured with techniques based on the Zeeman effect of the order of 10 G (e.g., Sánchez Almeida & Lites 2000;Lites 2002). The analysis of observations with a spatial resolution better by a factor of 2 yields an unsigned flux a factor of two larger .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Quiet Sun Magnetic Fields from Simultaneous Inversions of Visible and Infrared Spectropolarimetric Observations

Cerdeña

Alméida

Kneer³

2006

ApJ

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We study the quiet Sun magnetic fields using spectropolarimetric observations of the infrared and visible Fe i lines at 6301.5, 6302.5, 15648, and 15653 8. Magnetic field strengths and filling factors are inferred by the simultaneous fit of the observed Stokes profiles under the MISMA hypothesis. The observations cover an intranetwork region at the solar disk center. We analyze 2280 Stokes profiles whose polarization signals are above noise in the two spectral ranges, which correspond to 40% of the field of view. Most of these profiles can be reproduced only with a model atmosphere including three magnetic components with very different field strengths, which indicates the coexistence of kG and sub-kG fields in our 1B5 resolution elements. We measure an unsigned magnetic flux density of 9.6 G considering the full field of view. Half of the pixels present magnetic fields with mixed polarities in the resolution element. The fraction of mixed polarities increases as the polarization weakens. We compute the probability density function of finding each magnetic field strength. It has a significant contribution of kG field strengths, which concentrates most of the observed magnetic flux and energy. This kG contribution has a preferred magnetic polarity, while the polarity of the weak fields is balanced.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Quiet Sun Magnetic Fields from Simultaneous Inversions of Visible and Infrared Spectropolarimetric Observations

Cerdeña

Alméida

Kneer³

2006

ApJ

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“…Even smaller are the smallest so far resolved bipolar features, the internetwork magnetic loops (Martínez González et al 2007;Centeno et al 2007;Martínez González and Bellot Rubio 2009;Danilovic et al 2010a) which emerge throughout the QS (although preferring a meso-scale pattern). They have fluxes of roughly 10 16 to 10 17 Mx (Lin and Rimmele 1999) and display in general weak equipartition (that is, the magnetic energy density is similar to the kinetic energy density of the convective flows) intrinsic fields. Occasionally, these weak fields may be intensified due to a convective collapse (Parker 1978b;Spruit 1979).…”

Section: Magnetic Flux Emergencementioning

confidence: 99%

The magnetic field in the solar atmosphere

Wiegelmann

Thalmann

Solanki

2014

Astron Astrophys Rev

182

125

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This publication provides an overview of magnetic fields in the solar atmosphere with the focus lying on the corona. The solar magnetic field couples the solar interior with the visible surface of the Sun and with its atmosphere. It is also responsible for all solar activity in its numerous manifestations. Thus, dynamic phenomena such as coronal mass ejections and flares are magnetically driven. In addition, the field also plays a crucial role in heating the solar chromosphere and corona as well as in accelerating the solar wind. Our main emphasis is the magnetic field in the upper solar atmosphere so that photospheric and chromospheric magnetic structures are mainly discussed where relevant for higher solar layers. Also, the discussion of the solar atmosphere and activity is limited to those topics of direct relevance to the magnetic field. After giving a brief overview about the solar magnetic field in general and its global structure, we discuss in more detail the magnetic field in active regions, the quiet Sun and coronal holes.

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“…Recent SST observations (Berger et al 2004) indicated that the magnetic flux in plages seems to form extended ribbon-like structures, with a peak magnetic field strength of the order of 1500 G. While the magnetic field in these regions is substantially weaker than that found within sunspot umbrae, it is still strong enough to exert a significant dynamical influence upon the surrounding convection. In the quiet Sun, well away from active regions, any vertical magnetic flux tends to accumulate in the downflows at the edges of the granular convective cells (Lin & Rimmele 1999). In fact, compact regions of vertical magnetic flux appear to be a common feature of intergranular lanes in the quiet Sun (Domínguez Cerdena et al 2003).…”

Section: The Quiet Sunmentioning

confidence: 99%

Magnetic fields in the solar photosphere

Bushby

2008

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A.

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Recent high-resolution observations of the surface of the Sun have revealed the fine structure of a vast array of complex photospheric magnetic features. Observations of these magnetic field structures have already greatly enhanced our theoretical understanding of the interactions between magnetic fields and turbulent convection, and future photospheric observations will inevitably present new theoretical challenges. In this review, I discuss recent progress that has been made in the modelling of photospheric magnetic fields. In particular, I focus upon the complex field structures that are observed within the umbrae and the penumbrae of sunspots. On a much smaller scale, I also discuss models of the highly localized magnetic field structures that are observed in less magnetically active regions of the photosphere. As the spatial resolution of telescopes has improved over the last few years, it has now become possible to observe these features in detail, and theoretical models can now describe much of this behaviour. In the last section of this review, I discuss some of the remaining unanswered questions.

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The Granular Magnetic Fields of the Quiet Sun

Cited by 162 publications

References 13 publications

Quiet Sun Magnetic Fields from Simultaneous Inversions of Visible and Infrared Spectropolarimetric Observations

Quiet Sun Magnetic Fields from Simultaneous Inversions of Visible and Infrared Spectropolarimetric Observations

The magnetic field in the solar atmosphere

Magnetic fields in the solar photosphere

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