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Solar Physics

, Volume 280, Issue 1, pp 51–67 | Cite as

Solar Intranetwork Magnetic Elements: Intrinsically Weak or Strong?

  • C. L. Jin
  • J. X. Wang
  • Z. X. Xie
Article
First Online:
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Abstract

The high spatial resolution observation of a quiet region taken with the Solar Optical Telescope/Spectro-Polarimeter aboard the Hinode spacecraft is analyzed. Based on the Milne–Eddington atmospheric model, the vector magnetic field of the quiet region is derived by fitting the full Stokes profiles of the Fe i 630 nm line pair. We extract intranetwork (IN) region from the quiet region and identify 5058 IN magnetic elements, and study their magnetic properties. As a comparison, the magnetic properties of network (NT) region are also analyzed. The main results are as follows. i) The IN area displays a predominance of weak (hecto-gauss) field concentration, i.e., 99.8 % of IN area shows the weak field. Moreover, the vector magnetic field exhibits concentration toward horizontal direction. However, for the NT region, we discover the coexistence of weak field and strong (kilo-gauss, kG) field. In the IN and NT regions, the filling factor shows almost the same probability distribution function with the peak at about 0.28. ii) All IN magnetic elements show field strength less than 1 kG. However, some NT elements display the coexistence of weak field and strong field. Regardless of NT or IN elements, about 20 % of elements lies in the Doppler blue-shift region. Our results imply that not all magnetic elements lie in the down-draft sites.

Keywords

Granulation Magnetic fields, photosphere Spectral line, theory 
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Notes

Acknowledgements

We appreciate the valuable suggestions from Prof. Bruce Lites. The authors are grateful to the Hinode team for providing the data. Hinode is a Japanese mission developed and launched by ISAS/JAXA, with NAOJ as a domestic partner and NASA and STFC (UK) as international partners. It is operated by these agencies in cooperation with ESA and NSC (Norway). Hinode SOT/SP Inversions were conducted at National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) under the framework of the Community Spectro-polarimetric Analysis Center (CSAC; http://www.csac.hao.ucar.edu/ ). The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of K.C. Wong Education Foundation, Hong Kong. This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundations of China (11003024, 10873020, 40731056, 40890161, 10973019, 40974112, 11025315, 11003026 and 10921303), and the National Basic Research Program of China (G2011CB811403).

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© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Key Laboratory of Solar Activity, National Astronomical ObservatoriesChinese Academy of SciencesBeijingChina
  2. 2.Shenzhen Graduate SchoolHarbin Institute of TechnologyShenzhenChina

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