Vortex flow in the solar photosphere
Abstract
Convective flow fields in the solar atmosphere play a key role in the concentration and dispersal of magnetic flux1, but because the individual flow elements-the solar granules-are a few arcsec or less in size, studies of their motions have been limited by the distortion and blurring of the Earth's atmosphere ('seeing'). We report here a very high-quality series of granulation images taken at the new Swedish Solar Observatory on La Palma (Canary Islands) which have permitted flow measurements at the sub-arcsec level. These movies show a vortex structure which visibly dominates the motion of the granules in its neighbourhood and persists for the 1.5 h duration of the movie. If such vortices are a common feature of the solar convective zone, they may provide an important mechanism for the heating of stellar chromospheres and coronae by twisting the footprints of magnetic flux tubes.
- Publication:
-
Nature
- Pub Date:
- September 1988
- DOI:
- 10.1038/335238a0
- Bibcode:
- 1988Natur.335..238B
- Keywords:
-
- Convective Flow;
- Magnetic Flux;
- Photosphere;
- Solar Atmosphere;
- Vortices;
- Flow Distribution;
- Line Of Sight;
- Solar Granulation;
- Solar Physics