Magnetic Structure of Sunspots

TL;DR

This review summarizes current observational knowledge of sunspot magnetic fields, discussing tools, structures, models, and implications for energy transport and coronal extrapolations.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of observational methods and their implications for understanding sunspot magnetic structures and related solar phenomena.

Findings

Current tools effectively infer magnetic fields in sunspots.

Observations support specific models of sunspot magnetic structure.

Implications for energy transport and coronal magnetic extrapolations.

Abstract

In this review we give an overview about the current state-of-knowledge of the magnetic field in sunspots from an observational point of view. We start by offering a brief description of tools that are most commonly employed to infer the magnetic field in the solar atmosphere with emphasis in the photosphere of sunspots. We then address separately the global and local magnetic structure of sunspots, focusing on the implications of the current observations for the different sunspots models, energy transport mechanisms, extrapolations of the magnetic field towards the Corona and other issues.