Structure of the Sun's photosphere: convection versus magnetic fields through the eyes of the SST
by
Vasco Henriques(SU)
→
Europe/Stockholm
FA31
FA31
Description
The Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope opened an unprecedented and still unmatched window into the Sun's atmosphere. Recent observations using the Crisp Imaging Spectro-Polarimeter allowed us to conclusively detect a pattern of convective up and downflows in a Sunspot's penumbra. This effectively decides in favor of the "gappy" penumbra model for the interpretation of it's structure thus solving the problem of the energy transport up to the penumbra's surface and pinpointing the nature of the century old Evershed effect. We also "look through" the SST's high resolution Ca II H setup which allows further insight into finner structures such as dark cores and penumbral grains. Extraction of vertical temperature gradients at both bright points and penumbral grains in observations and comparison with synthetic observations obtained from MHD plage simulations indicates similarities that might be explainable in terms of line of sight gas evacuation. Reduction, method validation and seeing compensation techniques important for these results are also discussed.
