Migration of Ca II H bright points in the internetwork
Abstract
Context. The migration of magnetic bright point-like features (MBP) in the lower solar atmosphere reflects the dispersal of magnetic flux as well as the horizontal flows of the atmospheric layer they are embedded in.
Aims: We analyse trajectories of the proper motion of intrinsically magnetic, isolated internetwork Ca ii H MBPs (mean lifetime 461 ± 9 s) to obtain their diffusivity behaviour.
Methods: We use seeing-free high spatial and temporal resolution image sequences of quiet-Sun, disc-centre observations obtained in the Ca ii H 3968 Å passband of the Sunrise Filter Imager (SuFI) onboard the Sunrise balloon-borne solar observatory. Small MBPs in the internetwork are automatically tracked. The trajectory of each MBP is then calculated and described by a diffusion index (γ) and a diffusion coefficient (D). We also explore the distribution of the diffusion indices with the help of a Monte Carlo simulation.
Results: We find γ = 1.69 ± 0.08 and D = 257 ± 32 km2 s-1 averaged over all MBPs. Trajectories of most MBPs are classified as super-diffusive, i.e. γ > 1, with the determined γ being the largest obtained so far to our knowledge. A direct correlation between D and timescale (τ) determined from trajectories of all MBPs is also obtained. We discuss a simple scenario to explain the diffusivity of the observed, relatively short-lived MBPs while they migrate within a small area in a supergranule (i.e. an internetwork area). We show that the scatter in the γ values obtained for individual MBPs is due to their limited lifetimes.
Conclusions: The super-diffusive MBPs can be described as random walkers (due to granular evolution and intergranular turbulence) superposed on a large systematic (background) velocity, caused by granular, mesogranular, and supergranular flows.
- Publication:
-
Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Pub Date:
- March 2014
- DOI:
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1401.7522
- Bibcode:
- 2014A&A...563A.101J
- Keywords:
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- Sun: chromosphere;
- Sun: photosphere;
- methods: observational;
- diffusion;
- turbulence;
- Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 10 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables