Related papers: Peripheral downflows in sunspot penumbrae
We used spectropolarimetric observations of a sunspot in active region NOAA 11809 in the Ca ii line at 854.2 nm taken with the SpectroPolarimeter for Optical and Infrared Regions (SPINOR) at the Dunn Solar Telescope to infer thermodynamic…
Magnetic reconnection is a universal process that powers explosive energy release events such as solar flares, geomagnetic substorms, and some astrophysical jets. A characteristic feature of magnetic reconnection is the production of fast…
Using Doppler velocity data from the SOI/MDI instrument onboard the SoHO spacecraft, we do time-distance helioseismic inversions for sound-speed perturbations beneath 16 sunspots observed in high-resolution mode. We clearly detect ring-like…
We observed a C-class flare at the outer boundary of the super-penumbra of a sunspot. The flare was triggered by an emerging magnetic bipolar region that was obliquely oriented with respect to the super-penumbral fibrils. The flare started…
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…
The subsurface structure of a solar sunspot is important in the stability of the sunspots and the energy transport therein. Two subsurface structure models have been proposed, the monolithic and cluster models, but no clear observational…
The presence of fine structures in the sunspot vector magnetic fields has been confirmed from Hinode as well as other earlier observations. We studied 43 sunspots based on the data sets taken from ASP/DLSP, Hinode (SOT/SP) and SVM (USO). In…
In this Letter we present a seismological detection of a rising motion of magnetic flux in the shallow convection zone of the Sun, and show estimates of the emerging speed and its decelerating nature. In order to evaluate the speed of…
Light bridges are the most prominent manifestation of convection in sunspots. The brightest representatives are granular light bridges composed of features that appear to be similar to granules. An in-depth study of the convective motions,…
The inverse Evershed flow (IEF) is a mass motion towards sunspots at chromospheric heights. We combined high-resolution observations of NOAA 12418 from the Dunn Solar Telescope and vector magnetic field measurements from the Helioseismic…
Advances in instrumentation have made it possible to study sunspots with unprecedented detail. New capabilities include imaging observations at a resolution of 0.1" (70 km on the sun), spectroscopy at ~0.2", and simultaneous…
In the past two decades, the complex nature of sunspots has been disclosed with high-resolution observations. One of the most important findings is the "uncombed" penumbral structure, where a more horizontal magnetic component carrying most…
Assuming that the interchange convection of magnetic flux elements is the physical cause for the existence of filamentary penumbrae in sunspots, we investigate the behavior of an individual fibril embedded in the deep penumbra. The fibril…
We interpret penumbral filaments as due to convection in field-free, radially aligned gaps just below the visible surface of the penumbra, intruding into a nearly potential field above. This solves the classical discrepancy between the…
Solar active regions are associated with Evershed outflows in sunspot penumbrae, moat outflows surrounding sunspots, and extended inflows surrounding active regions. The latter have been identified on established active regions by various…
We report three-minute oscillations in the solar chromosphere driven by a strong downflow event in a sunspot. We used the Fast Imaging Solar Spectrograph of the 1.6 m New Solar Telescope and the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS).…
Realistic 3D radiative MHD simulations reveal the magneto-convective processes underlying the formation of the photospheric fine structure of sunspots, including penumbral filaments and umbral dots. Here we provide results from a…
Solar chromospheric observations of sunspot umbrae offer an exceptional view of magneto-hydrodynamic wave phenomena. In recent years, a wealth of wave signatures related to propagating magneto-acoustic modes have been presented, which…
Some models for the topology of the magnetic field in sunspot penumbrae predict the existence of field-free or dynamically weak-field regions in the deep Photosphere. To confirm or rule out the existence of weak-field regions in the deepest…
Results of a 3D MHD simulation of a sunspot with a photospheric size of about 20 Mm are presented. The simulation has been carried out with the MURaM code, which includes a realistic equation of state with partial ionization and radiative…