Observations of Supersonic Downflows in a Sunspot Light Bridge as Revealed by Hinode
Abstract
Recent high resolution spectropolarimetric observations from Hinode detected the presence of supersonic downflows in a sunspot light bridge (Louis et al. 2009). These downflows occurred in localized patches, close to regions where the field azimuth changed by a large value. This apparent discontinuity in the field azimuth was seen along a thin ridge running along the western edge of the light bridge. Some, but not all, of these downflowing patches were co-spatial with chromospheric brightness enhancements seen in Ca II H filtergrams. The presence of magnetic inhomogeneities at scales of 0.3 arcsec could facilitate the reconnection of field lines in the lower chromosphere whose signatures might be the supersonic downflows and the brightness enhancements that have been observed.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1206.4347,
title = {Observations of Supersonic Downflows in a Sunspot Light Bridge as Revealed by Hinode},
author = {Rohan E. Louis and Luis R. Bellot Rubio and Shibu K. Mathew and P. Venkatakrishnan},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1206.4347},
year = {2012}
}
Comments
To appear in the ASP Conference Proceedings of Hinode - 3, The 3rd Hinode Science Meeting, Tokyo, eds. Takashi Sekii, Tetsuya Watanabe and Takashi Sakurai. 5 Pages, 2 Figures