We analyze Fe I 630 nm observations of the quiet Sun at disk center taken with the spectropolarimeter of the Solar Optical Telescope aboard the Hinode satellite A significant fraction of the scanned area, including granules, turns out to be covered by magnetic fields We derive field strength and inclination probability density functions from a Milne-Eddington inversion of the observed Stokes profiles They show that the internetwork consists of very inclined, hG fields As expected, network areas exhibit a predominance of kG field concentrations The high spatial resolution of Hinode's spectropolarimetric measurements brings to an agreement the results obtained from the analysis of visible and near-infrared lines

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1086/524139/pdf

Quiet-Sun Internetwork Magnetic Fields from the Inversion of Hinode Measurements

As we resolve ever smaller structures in the solar atmosphere, it has become clear that magnetism is an important component of those small structures. Small-scale magnetism holds the key to many poorly understood facets of solar magnetism on all scales, such as the existence of a local dynamo, chromospheric heating, and flux emergence, to name a few. Here, we review our knowledge of small-scale photospheric fields, with particular emphasis on quiet-sun field, and discuss the implications of several results obtained recently using new instruments, as well as future prospects in this field of research.

/pdf/small-scale-solar-magnetic-fields-2imvucs7g9.pdf

Small-Scale Solar Magnetic Fields

Context. Owing to the limited spatial resolution and the weak polarization signal coming from the quietest regions on the Sun, the organization of the magnetic field on the smallest scales is largely unknown.Aims. We obtain information about the magnetic flux present in the quiet Sun by comparing radiative MHD simulations with observations, with particular emphasis on the role of surface dynamo action.Methods. We synthesized Stokes profiles on the basis of the MHD simulation results. The profiles are degraded by taking the properties of the spectropolarimeter (SP) into account onboard the Hinode satellite. We used simulation runs with different magnetic Reynolds numbers (R m ) and observations at different heliocentric angles with different levels of noise.Results. Simulations with an imposed mixed-polarity field and R m below the threshold for dynamo action reproduce the observed vertical flux density, but do not display a high enough horizontal flux density. Surface dynamo simulations at the highest R m feasible at the moment yield a ratio of the horizontal and vertical flux density consistent with observational results, but the overall amplitudes are too low. Based on the properties of the local dynamo simulations, a tentative scaling of the magnetic field strength by a factor 2–3 reproduces the signal observed in the internetwork regions. Conclusions. We find agreement with observations at different heliocentric angles. The mean field strength in internetwork implied by our analysis is roughly 170 G at the optical depth unity. Our study shows that surface dynamo could be responsible for most of the magnetic flux in the quiet Sun outside the network, given that the extrapolation to higher R m is valid.

/pdf/probing-quiet-sun-magnetism-using-muram-simulations-and-2xsnehsswg.pdf

Probing quiet Sun magnetism using MURaM simulations and Hinode/SP results: support for a local dynamo

The quiet Sun is the region of the solar surface outside of sunspots, pores, and plages. In continuum intensity it appears dominated by granular convection. However, in polarized light the quiet Sun exhibits impressive magnetic activity on a broad range of scales, from the 30,000 km of supergranular cells down to the smallest magnetic features of about 100 km resolvable with current instruments. Quiet Sun fields are observed to evolve in a coherent way, interacting with each other as they are advected by the horizontal photospheric flows. They appear and disappear over surprisingly short time scales, bringing large amounts of magnetic flux to the solar surface. For this reason they may be important contributors to the heating of the chromosphere. Peering into such fields is difficult because of the weak signals they produce, which are easily affected, and even completely hidden, by photon noise. Thus, their evolution and nature remain largely unknown. In recent years the situation has improved thanks to the advent of high-resolution, high-sensitivity spectropolarimetric measurements and the application of state-of-the-art Zeeman and Hanle effect diagnostics. Here we review this important aspect of solar magnetism, paying special attention to the techniques used to observe and characterize the fields, their evolution on the solar surface, and their physical properties as revealed by the most recent analyses. We identify the main open questions that need to be addressed in the future and offer some ideas on how to solve them.

/pdf/quiet-sun-magnetic-fields-an-observational-view-1dnpm8hosg.pdf

Quiet Sun magnetic fields: an observational view

Some recent investigations of spectropolarimetric observations of the Zeeman effect in the Fe I lines at 630 nm carried out with the Hinode solar space telescope have concluded that the strength of the magnetic field vector in the internetwork regions of the quiet Sun is in the hG regime and that its inclination is predominantly horizontal. We critically reconsider the analysis of such observations and carry out a complete Bayesian analysis with the aim of extracting as much information as possible from them, including error bars. We apply the recently developed BAYES-ME code that carries out a complete Bayesian inference for Milne-Eddington atmospheres. The sampling of the posterior distribution function is obtained with a Markov Chain Monte Carlo scheme and the marginal distributions are analyzed in detail. The Kullback-Leibler divergence is used to study the extent to which the observations introduce new information in the inference process resulting in sufficiently constrained parameters. Our analysis clearly shows that only upper limits to the magnetic field strength can be inferred, with fields in the kG regime completely discarded. Furthermore, the noise level present in the analyzed Hinode observations induces a substantial loss of information for constraining the azimuth of the magnetic field.more » Concerning the inclination of the field, we demonstrate that some information is available to constrain it for those pixels with the largest polarimetric signal. The results also point out that the field in pixels with small polarimetric signals can be nicely reproduced in terms of a quasi-isotropic distribution.« less

Evidence for quasi-isotropic magnetic fields from hinode quiet-sun observations

We report on spectropolarimetric observations of a near-IR line of Mn I located at 15262.702 A whose intensity and polarization profiles are very sensitive to the presence of hyperfine structure. A theoretical investigation of the magnetic sensitivity of this line to the magnetic field uncovers several interesting properties. The most important one is that the presence of strong Paschen-Back perturbations due to the hyperfine structure produces an intensity line profile whose shape changes according to the absolute value of the magnetic field strength. A line ratio technique is developed from the intrinsic variations of the line profile. This line ratio technique is applied to spectropolarimetric observations of the quiet solar photosphere in order to explore the probability distribution function of the magnetic field strength. Particular attention is given to the quietest area of the observed field of view, which was encircled by an enhanced network region. A detailed theoretical investigation shows that the inferred distribution yields information on the average magnetic field strength and the spatial scale at which the magnetic field is organized. A first estimation gives ~250 G for the mean field strength and a tentative value of ~0.45" for the spatial scale at which the observed magnetic field is horizontally organized.

https://arxiv.org/pdf/astro-ph/0612389.pdf

M. Collados

Papers

A near-IR line of Mn I as a diagnostic tool of the average magnetic energy in the solar photosphere