0000000000230166
AUTHOR
J. C. Del Toro Iniesta
COMPARISON BETWEEN Mg IIkAND Ca II H IMAGES RECORDED BY SUNRISE/SuFI
We present a comparison of high-resolution images of the solar surface taken in the Mg II k and Ca II H channels of the Filter Imager on the balloon-borne solar observatory SUNRISE. The Mg and Ca lines are sampled with 0.48 nm and 0.11 nm wide filters, respectively. The two channels show remarkable qualitative and quantitative similarities in the quiet Sun, in an active region plage and during a small flare. However, the Mg filtergrams display 1.4-1.7 times higher intensity contrast and appear more smeared and smoothed in the quiet Sun. In addition, the fibrils in a plage are wider. Although the exposure time is 100 times longer for Mg images, the evidence suggests that these differences ca…
FULLY RESOLVED QUIET-SUN MAGNETIC FLUX TUBE OBSERVED WITH THE SUNRISE/IMAX INSTRUMENT
Until today, the small size of magnetic elements in quiet Sun areas has required the application of indirect methods, such as the line-ratio technique or multi-component inversions, to infer their physical properties. A consistent match to the observed Stokes profiles could only be obtained by introducing a magnetic filling factor that specifies the fraction of the observed pixel filled with magnetic field. Here, we investigate the properties of a small magnetic patch in the quiet Sun observed with the IMaX magnetograph on board the balloon-borne telescope Sunrise with unprecedented spatial resolution and low instrumental stray light. We apply an inversion technique based on the numerical s…
Photospheric response to an ellerman bomb-like event—an analogy of Sunrise/IMaX observations and MHD simulations
S. Danilovic et. al.
Power spectrum of turbulent convection in the solar photosphere
The solar photosphere provides us with a laboratory for understanding turbulence in a layer where the fundamental processes of transport vary rapidly and a strongly superadiabatic region lies very closely to a subadiabatic layer. Our tools for probing the turbulence are high-resolution spectropolarimetric observations such as have recently been obtained with the two balloon-borne SUNRISE missions, and numerical simulations. Our aim is to study photospheric turbulence with the help of Fourier power spectra that we compute from observations and simulations. We also attempt to explain some properties of the photospheric overshooting flow with the help of its governing equations and simulations…
Supersonic Magnetic Flows in the Quiet Sun
In this contribution we describe some recent observations of high-speed magnetized flows in the quiet Sun granulation. These observations were carried out with the Imaging Magnetograph eXperiment (IMaX) onboard the stratospheric balloon {\sc Sunrise}, and possess an unprecedented spatial resolution and temporal cadence. These flows were identified as highly shifted circular polarization (Stokes $V$) signals. We estimate the LOS velocity responsible for these shifts to be larger than 6 km s$^{-1}$, and therefore we refer to them as {\it supersonic magnetic flows}. The average lifetime of the detected events is 81.3 s and they occupy an average area of about 23\,000 km$^2$. Most of the events…
Models and data analysis tools for the Solar Orbiter mission
All authors: Rouillard, A. P.; Pinto, R. F.; Vourlidas, A.; De Groof, A.; Thompson, W. T.; Bemporad, A.; Dolei, S.; Indurain, M.; Buchlin, E.; Sasso, C.; Spadaro, D.; Dalmasse, K.; Hirzberger, J.; Zouganelis, I.; Strugarek, A.; Brun, A. S.; Alexandre, M.; Berghmans, D.; Raouafi, N. E.; Wiegelmann, T.; Pagano, P.; Arge, C. N.; Nieves-Chinchilla, T.; Lavarra, M.; Poirier, N.; Amari, T.; Aran, A.; Andretta, V.; Antonucci, E.; Anastasiadis, A.; Auchère, F.; Bellot Rubio, L.; Nicula, B.; Bonnin, X.; Bouchemit, M.; Budnik, E.; Caminade, S.; Cecconi, B.; Carlyle, J.; Cernuda, I.; Davila, J. M.; Etesi, L.; Espinosa Lara, F.; Fedorov, A.; Fineschi, S.; Fludra, A.; Génot, V.; Georgoulis, M. K.; Gilbe…
Surface waves in solar granulation observed with {\sc Sunrise}
Solar oscillations are expected to be excited by turbulent flows in the intergranular lanes near the solar surface. Time series recorded by the IMaX instrument aboard the {\sc Sunrise} observatory reveal solar oscillations at high resolution, which allow studying the properties of oscillations with short wavelengths. We analyze two times series with synchronous recordings of Doppler velocity and continuum intensity images with durations of 32\thinspace min and 23\thinspace min, resp., recorded close to the disk center of the Sun to study the propagation and excitation of solar acoustic oscillations. In the Doppler velocity data, both the standing acoustic waves and the short-lived, high-deg…
A tale of two emergences: Sunrise II observations of emergence sites in a solar active region
R. Centeno et. al.
The polarimetric and helioseismic imager on solar orbiter
This paper describes the Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager on the Solar Orbiter mission (SO/PHI), the first magnetograph and helioseismology instrument to observe the Sun from outside the Sun-Earth line. It is the key instrument meant to address the top-level science question: How does the solar dynamo work and drive connections between the Sun and the heliosphere? SO/PHI will also play an important role in answering the other top-level science questions of Solar Orbiter, as well as hosting the potential of a rich return in further science. SO/PHI measures the Zeeman effect and the Doppler shift in the FeI 617.3nm spectral line. To this end, the instrument carries out narrow-band imaging…
Oscillations on Width and Intensity of Slender Ca ii H Fibrils from Sunrise/SuFI
R. Gafeira et. al.
Supersonic Magnetic Upflows in Granular Cells Observed with Sunrise/IMaX
Using the IMaX instrument on-board the Sunrise stratospheric balloon-telescope we have detected extremely shifted polarization signals around the Fe I 5250.217 {\AA} spectral line within granules in the solar photosphere. We interpret the velocities associated with these events as corresponding to supersonic and magnetic upflows. In addition, they are also related to the appearance of opposite polarities and highly inclined magnetic fields. This suggests that they are produced by the reconnection of emerging magnetic loops through granular upflows. The events occupy an average area of 0.046 arcsec$^2$ and last for about 80 seconds, with larger events having longer lifetimes. These supersoni…
Transverse component of the magnetic field in the solar photosphere observed by Sunrise
We present the first observations of the transverse component of photospheric magnetic field acquired by the imaging magnetograph Sunrise/IMaX. Using an automated detection method, we obtain statistical properties of 4536 features with significant linear polarization signal. Their rate of occurrence is 1-2 orders of magnitude larger than values reported by previous studies. We show that these features have no characteristic size or lifetime. They appear preferentially at granule boundaries with most of them being caught in downflow lanes at some point in their evolution. Only a small percentage are entirely and constantly embedded in upflows (16%) or downflows (8%).
Magnetic field emergence in mesogranular-sized exploding granules observed with SUNRISE/IMaX data
We report on magnetic field emergences covering significant areas of exploding granules. The balloon-borne mission SUNRISE provided high spatial and temporal resolution images of the solar photosphere. Continuum images, longitudinal and transverse magnetic field maps and Dopplergrams obtained by IMaX onboard SUNRISE are analyzed by Local Correlation Traking (LCT), divergence calculation and time slices, Stokes inversions and numerical simulations are also employed. We characterize two mesogranular-scale exploding granules where $\sim$ 10$^{18}$ Mx of magnetic flux emerges. The emergence of weak unipolar longitudinal fields ($\sim$100 G) start with a single visible magnetic polarity, occupyi…
Detection of vortex tubes in solar granulation from observations with Sunrise
We have investigated a time series of continuum intensity maps and corresponding Dopplergrams of granulation in a very quiet solar region at the disk center, recorded with the Imaging Magnetograph eXperiment (IMaX) on board the balloon-borne solar observatory Sunrise. We find that granules frequently show substructure in the form of lanes composed of a leading bright rim and a trailing dark edge, which move together from the boundary of a granule into the granule itself. We find strikingly similar events in synthesized intensity maps from an ab initio numerical simulation of solar surface convection. From cross sections through the computational domain of the simulation, we conclude that th…
The Second Flight of the Sunrise Balloon-borne Solar Observatory: Overview of Instrument Updates, the Flight, the Data, and First Results
S. K. Solanki et. al.
Autonomous on-board data processing and instrument calibration software for the SO/PHI
The extension of on-board data processing capabilities is an attractive option to reduce telemetry for scientific instruments on deep space missions. The challenges that this presents, however, require a comprehensive software system, which operates on the limited resources a data processing unit in space allows. We implemented such a system for the Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI) on-board the Solar Orbiter (SO) spacecraft. It ensures autonomous operation to handle long command-response times, easy changing of the processes after new lessons have been learned and meticulous book-keeping of all operations to ensure scientific accuracy. This contribution presents the requirements a…
Morphological Properties of Slender Ca ${\rm{II}}$ H Fibrils Observed by Sunrise II
R. Gafeira et. al.
Transverse Oscillations in Slender Ca II H Fibrils Observed with Sunrise/SuFI
S. Jafarzadeh et. al.
A new MHD-assisted Stokes inversion technique
©2017 The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. We present a new method of Stokes inversion of spectropolarimetric data and evaluate it by taking the example of a Sunrise/IMaX observation. An archive of synthetic Stokes profiles is obtained by the spectral synthesis of state-of-the-art magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) simulations and a realistic degradation to the level of the observed data. The definition of a merit function allows the archive to be searched for the synthetic Stokes profiles that best match the observed profiles. In contrast to traditional Stokes inversion codes, which solve the Unno–Rachkovsky equations for the polarized radiative transfer numerically and fit the …
Solar Coronal Loops Associated with Small-scale Mixed Polarity Surface Magnetic Fields
L. P. Chitta et. al.
Slender Ca II H fibrils mapping magnetic fields in the low solar chromosphere
S. Jafarzadeh et. al.
Moving Magnetic Features around a Pore
A. J. Kaithakkal et. al.
Spectropolarimetric evidence for a siphon flow along an emerging magnetic flux tube
©2017 The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.We study the dynamics and topology of an emerging magnetic flux concentration using high spatial resolution spectropolarimetric data acquired with the Imaging Magnetograph eXperiment on board the sunrise balloon-borne solar observatory. We obtain the full vector magnetic field and the line of sight (LOS) velocity through inversions of the Fe i line at 525.02 nm with the SPINOR code. The derived vector magnetic field is used to trace magnetic field lines. Two magnetic flux concentrations with different polarities and LOS velocities are found to be connected by a group of arch-shaped magnetic field lines. The positive polarity footp…
SUNRISE/IMaX observations of convectively driven vortex flows in the Sun
We characterize the observational properties of the convectively driven vortex flows recently discovered on the quiet Sun, using magnetograms, Dopplergrams and images obtained with the 1-m balloon-borne Sunrise telescope. By visual inspection of time series, we find some 3.1e-3 vortices/(Mm^2 min), which is a factor of 1.7 larger than previous estimates. The mean duration of the individual events turns out to be 7.9 min, with a standard deviation of 3.2 min. In addition, we find several events appearing at the same locations along the duration of the time series (31.6 min). Such recurrent vortices show up in the proper motion flow field map averaged over the time series. The typical vertica…
Maximum Entropy Limit of Small-scale Magnetic Field Fluctuations in the Quiet Sun
The observed magnetic field on the solar surface is characterized by a very complex spatial and temporal behavior. Although feature-tracking algorithms have allowed us to deepen our understanding of this behavior, subjectivity plays an important role in the identification and tracking of such features. In this paper, we continue studies Gorobets, A. Y., Borrero, J. M., & Berdyugina, S. 2016, ApJL, 825, L18 of the temporal stochasticity of the magnetic field on the solar surface without relying either on the concept of magnetic features or on subjective assumptions about their identification and interaction. We propose a data analysis method to quantify fluctuations of the line-of-sight …
Photospheric response to EB-like event
Ellerman Bombs are signatures of magnetic reconnection, which is an important physical process in the solar atmosphere. How and where they occur is a subject of debate. In this paper we analyse Sunrise/IMaX data together with 3D MHD simulations that aim to reproduce the exact scenario proposed for the formation of these features. Although the observed event seems to be more dynamic and violent than the simulated one, simulations clearly confirm the basic scenario for the production of EBs. The simulations also reveal the full complexity of the underlying process. The simulated observations show that the Fe I 525.02 nm line gives no information on the height where reconnection takes place. I…
Kinematics of Magnetic Bright Features in the Solar Photosphere
S. Jafarzadeh et. al.