# Photospheric plasma and magnetic field dynamics during the formation of solar AR 11190

## TL;DR

This study analyzes the plasma flow and magnetic field dynamics during the formation of solar active region NOAA 11190, revealing stable background flows and variable flux emergence effects through detailed velocity distribution analysis.

## Contribution

It provides a detailed statistical analysis of flow velocities and magnetic interactions during active region formation, highlighting the dual-component nature of flow distributions.

## Key findings

- Flow fields follow a Rayleigh distribution during active region evolution.
- Flux emergence introduces a high-velocity component in flow distributions.
- Magnetic elements often move faster than plasma during flux emergence.

## Abstract

The Sun features on its surface typical flow patterns called the granulation, mesogranulation, and supergranulation. These patterns arise due to convective flows transporting energy from the interior of the Sun to its surface. In this paper we will shed light on the interaction between the convective flows in large-scale cells as well as the large-scale magnetic fields in active regions, and investigate in detail the statistical distribution of flow velocities during the evolution and formation of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) active region 11190. To do so, we employed local correlation tracking methods on data obtained by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) spacecraft in the continuum as well as on processed line-of-sight (LOS) magnetograms. We find that the flow fields in an active region can be modelled by a two-component distribution. One component is very stable, follows a Rayleigh distribution, and can be assigned to the background flows, whilst the other component is variable in strength and velocity range and can be attributed to the flux emergence visible both in the continuum maps as well as magnetograms. Generally, the plasma flows, as seen by the distribution of the magnitude of the velocity, follow a Rayleigh distribution even through the time of formation of active regions. However, at certain moments of large-scale fast flux emergence, a second component featuring higher velocities is formed in the velocity magnitudes distribution. The plasma flows are generally highly correlated to the motion of magnetic elements and vice versa except during the times of fast magnetic flux emergence as observed by rising magnetic elements. At these times, the magnetic fields are found to move faster than the corresponding plasma.