Kinematics of Magnetic Bright Features in the Solar Photosphere

TL;DR

This study analyzes the movement and dispersal of magnetic bright features in the solar photosphere, revealing different diffusion behaviors in various solar regions and quantifying their transport properties.

Contribution

It provides a detailed characterization of MBF kinematics and diffusion parameters across different solar environments using high-resolution, seeing-free data.

Findings

MBFs near network areas behave as random walkers (gamma=1.0)

MBFs over supergranules move with near-constant speeds (gamma=1.9-2.0)

MBFs near flux emergence regions decelerate (gamma=1.4-1.5)

Abstract

Convective flows are known as the prime means of transporting magnetic fields on the solar surface. Thus, small magnetic structures are good tracers of the turbulent flows. We study the migration and dispersal of magnetic bright features (MBFs) in intergranular areas observed at high spatial resolution with Sunrise/IMaX. We describe the flux dispersal of individual MBFs as a diffusion process whose parameters are computed for various areas in the quiet Sun and the vicinity of active regions from seeing-free data. We find that magnetic concentrations are best described as random walkers close to network areas (diffusion index, gamma=1.0), travelers with constant speeds over a supergranule (gamma=1.9-2.0), and decelerating movers in the vicinity of flux emergence and/or within active regions (gamma=1.4-1.5). The three types of regions host MBFs with mean diffusion coefficients of 130 km^2/s, 80-90 km^2/s, and 25-70 km^2/s, respectively. The MBFs in these three types of regions are found to display a distinct kinematic behavior at a confidence level in excess of 95%.