Magnetic bright points in the quiet Sun
J. Sanchez Almeida(1,2), J. A. Bonet (1,2), B.Viticchie (3,4), and D., Del Moro(4) ((1) Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, La Laguna, Tenerife,, Spain, (2) Departamento de Astrofisica, Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife,, Spain, (3) ESA/ESTEC RSSD, Netherlands

TL;DR
This study provides a highly detailed count of bright points in the quiet Sun, revealing a higher density than previously known, and estimates their contribution to solar magnetic flux.
Contribution
First direct high-resolution measurement of bright point density in the quiet Sun, significantly increasing previous estimates and quantifying their magnetic flux contribution.
Findings
Bright points cover 0.9% to 2.2% of the solar surface.
Detected bright points contribute 13 to 33 G to magnetic flux.
Number of bright points is three times higher than previous estimates.
Abstract
We present a visual determination of the number of bright points (BPs) existing in the quiet Sun, which are structures though to trace intense kG magnetic concentrations. The measurement is based on a 0.1 arcsec angular resolution G-band movie obtained with the Swedish Solar Telescope at the solar disk center. We find 0.97 BPs/Mm^2, which is a factor three larger than any previous estimate. It corresponds to 1.2 BPs per solar granule. Depending on the details of the segmentation, the BPs cover between 0.9% and 2.2% of the solar surface. Assuming their field strength to be 1.5 kG, the detected BPs contribute to the solar magnetic flux with an unsigned flux density between 13 G and 33 G. If network and inter-network regions are counted separately, they contain 2.2 BPs/Mm^2 and 0.85 BPs/Mm^2, respectively.
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Taxonomy
TopicsSolar and Space Plasma Dynamics · Solar Radiation and Photovoltaics · Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
