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Observations of the horizontal velocity field surrounding sunspots

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Abstract

During the summer and fall of 1971, Doppler spectroheliograms were obtained for several sunspots located near the solar limb. These observations confirm a previous result based on the study of only a few sunspots that in the plage-free photosphere surrounding sunspots the spatially-averaged, horizontal flow tends to be outward at 0.5–1.0 km s−1 for distances typically 10000–20000 km beyond the outer boundary of the penumbra. It is suggested that these material motions are the means by which small-scale fragments of magnetic flux are carried away from sunspots.

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References

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Operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under contract with the National Science Foundation.

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Sheeley, N.R. Observations of the horizontal velocity field surrounding sunspots. Sol Phys 25, 98–103 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00155747

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