Magnetic Bright Points (MBPs) are among the smallest observable objects on the solar photosphere. A combination of G-band observations and numerical simulations is used to determine their area distribution. An automatic detection algorithm, employing 1-dimensional intensity profiling, is utilized to identify these structures in the observed and simulated datasets. Both distributions peak at an area of ≈45000 km2, with a sharp decrease towards smaller areas. The distributions conform with log-normal statistics, which suggests that flux fragmentation dominates over flux convergence. Radiative magneto-convection simulations indicate an independence in the MBP area distribution for differing magnetic flux densities. The most commonly occurring bright point size corresponds to the typical width of intergranular lanes.
@article{arxiv.1009.2410,
title = {The Area Distribution of Solar Magnetic Bright Points},
author = {P. J. Crockett and M. Mathioudakis and D. B. Jess and S. Shelyag and F. P. Keenan and D. J. Christian},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1009.2410},
year = {2015}
}