Related papers: On the surface structure of sunspots
The satellite Hinode has recently revealed penumbral structures with a magnetic polarity opposite to the main sunspot polarity. They may be a direct confirmation of magnetic field lines and mass flows returning to the solar interior…
The physics of Sunspots is a fascinating and demanding field of research in solar astronomy. Interaction of magnetic fields and plasma flows takes place in a tangled magnetic geometry and occurs on spatial scales that pose a continuous…
MHD simulations of sunspots have successfully reproduced many aspects of sunspot fine structure as consequence of magneto convection in inclined magnetic field. We study how global sunspot properties and penumbral fine structure depend on…
We study the presence of reversed polarity magnetic flux in sunspot penumbra. We applied a new regularized method to deconvolve spectropolarimetric data observed with the spectropolarimeter SP onboard Hinode. The new regularization is based…
The penumbra of a sunspot is a fascinating phenomenon featuring complex velocity and magnetic fields. It challenges both our understanding of radiative magneto-convection and our means to measure and derive the actual geometry of the…
Context. A significant part of the penumbral magnetic field returns below the surface in the very deep photosphere. For lines in the visible, a large portion of this return field can only be detected indirectly by studying its imprints on…
Vector magnetic fields of moving magnetic features (MMFs) are well observed with the Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) aboard the Hinode satellite. We focus on the evolution of three MMFs with the SOT in this study. We found that an MMF having…
The high spatial, temporal and spectral resolution achieved by Hinode instruments give much better understanding of the behavior of some elusive solar features, such as pores and naked sunspots. Their fast evolution and, in some cases,…
While sunspots are easily observed at the solar surface, determining their subsurface structure is not trivial. There are two main hypotheses for the subsurface structure of sunspots: the monolithic model and the cluster model. Local…
Aims: We search for penumbral magnetic fields of opposite polarity and for their correspondence with downflows. Methods: We used spectropolarimetric HINODE data of a spot very close to disk center to suppress the horizontal velocity…
We use spectro-polarimetric data recorded by Hinode to analyze the magnetic field configuration of a part of a sunspot (AR 10923) where a bundle of penumbral filaments are intruding into its umbra. We want to explore the role of the sunspot…
We employ high-spatial resolution spectropolarimetric observations from the Solar Optical Telescope on-board the Hinode spacecraft to investigate the fine structure of the penumbral magnetic fields. The Stokes vector of two neutral iron…
In this review we give an overview about the current state-of-knowledge of the magnetic field in sunspots from an observational point of view. We start by offering a brief description of tools that are most commonly employed to infer the…
Penumbrae are known to be area of mainly horizontal magnetic field surrounding umbrae of relatively large and mature sunspots. In this paper, we observationally studied the formation of penumbrae in NOAA10978, where several penumbral…
The sunspot penumbra comprises numerous thin, radially elongated filaments that are central for heat transport within the penumbra, but whose structure is still not clear. To investigate the fine-scale structure of these filaments, we…
Sunspots are concentrations of magnetic field on the visible solar surface that strongly affect the convective energy transport in their interior and surroundings. The filamentary outer regions (penumbrae) of sunspots show systematic radial…
Recent progress in theoretical modeling of a sunspot is reviewed. The observed properties of umbral dots are well reproduced by realistic simulations of magnetoconvection in a vertical, monolithic magnetic field. To understand the penumbra,…
Sunspot penumbrae show a fine structure in continuum intensity that displays considerable dynamics. The magnetic field, in contrast, although also highly structured, has appeared to be relatively static. Here we report the discovery of…
The flows in and around sunspots are rich in detail. Starting with the Evershed flow along low-lying flow channels, which are cospatial with the horizontal penumbral magnetic fields, Evershed clouds may continue this motion at the periphery…
Sunspots contain multiple small-scale structures in the umbra and in the penumbra. Despite extensive research on this subject in pre-Hinode era multiple questions concerning fine-scale structures of sunspots, their formation, evolution and…