Color in solar granulation

Pairs of spectra exposed simultaneously in the yellow and ultraviolet show exactly the same solar granulation in the two colors. This is contrary to Vassilyeva's earlier results. The difference is probably due to her neglect of atmospheric dispersion.     

Time-slice diagrams of solar granulation

From a series of 1400 white-light images of solar granulation spanning a time period of 8.2 hours, skeletal plots of time-slice diagrams are derived showing intergranular lane positions as a function of time. The diagrams permit to automatically track, classify, and relate 42 186 granules. Recurrently fragmenting granules are found that survive by means of their descendants for more than 3 hours. Such long-lived active granules tend to have a mean spatial distance along the slice of about 10 Mm. This distance decreases with decreasing minimal required lifetime. Since active granules are expected to generate a steadily divergent flow over a long period of time, it is suggested to identify them as a source of the mesogranular flow. Deficiencies of the time-slice analysis are discussed. The relative frequency of different types of granules and the granule decay time as derived from the time-slice diagrams are compared with corresponding results of previous works. Supplementary material to this paper is available in electronic form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1013350505080     

Mesostructure of the solar granulation

Quasi-periodic variations in the thermodynamic and hydrodynamic fine-structure properties of the granulation field along the photospheric surface are estimated quantitatively. The darkest vast intergranular lanes, called the intergranular knots, are the most important indicator of their physical properties. The formulated new definitions of “granule” and “intergranular lane” require a revision of the previous results. The definition of mesogranulation is given, and the method of its detection in the granulation field is described. The following important quantitative results, which established the extent and nature of the physical relationship between the granulation and mesogranulation fields, have been obtained for the first time: (1) the intensity amplitude of granules in mesogranules (ΔI(gr)/I ₀)_msgr = +10.3% is a factor of 1.4 larger than that of granules in intermesogranular regions [(ΔI(gr)/I ₀)_imsgr = +7.3%], whereas the intensity amplitude of intergranular lanes in mesogranules [(ΔI(igr)/I ₀)_msgr = ?6.0%] is a factor of 1.4 smaller than that of intergranular lanes in intermesogranular regions [(ΔI(igr)/I ₀)_imsgr = ?8.4%]; (2) the mean intensities of photospheric granules and intergranular lanes are (ΔI(gr)/I ₀)_phot = +9.2% and (ΔI(igr)/I ₀)_phot = ?7.5%, respectively; (3) granules cover 59% of the area of mesogranules, 45% of the area of the photosphere, and 31 % of the area of intermesogranular regions, while intergranular lanes cover 41, 55, and 69% of these areas, respectively; (4) intergranular knots and bright granules virtually never formed and do not exist in mesogranules and intermesogranular regions, respectively; (5) the amplitudes of intensity fluctuations in mesogranules and intermesogranular regions, as well as the areas occupied by them (49.4 and 50.6%, respectively), essentially level off, ΔI(msgr)/I ₀ = +3.6% and ΔI(imsgr)/I ₀ = ?3.5%, respectively.     

Structure of the solar granulation

The structure of the solar granulation has been analysed using computer-processed images of two very high resolution (0.25) white-light pictures obtained at the Pic-du-Midi Observatory.The narrow dispersion in the distribution of granule sizes is not confirmed. On the contrary, it is found that the number of granules increases continuously toward smaller scales; this means that the solar granulation has no characteristic or mean scale. Nevertheless, the granules appear to have a critical scale of 1.37, at which drastic changes in the properties of granules occur; in particular the fractal dimension changes at the critical scale. The granules smaller than this scale could be of turbulent origin.     

Morphological study of the solar granulation

Time-sequential high quality photographs of the photospheric granule on a quiet region of the disc center obtained at the Pic-du-Midi Observatory by Kawaguchi are analyzed. The size variation of individual granules in the area of 54×52 on the photosphere are traced over a period of 4 min. The granules are classified according to their morphological features as follows. (1) Active granules, they repeat the expansion and the fragmentation. (2) Quiet granules, they do not alter the size noticeably during the observed time span. (3) Declining granules, they disappear without further fragmentation or merging.The distribution of active granules on the photosphere reveals a presence of a cellular pattern. The relationships between the cellular pattern and the brightness on the quiet photosphere are investigated. The results show that there is a good spatial correlation between them. The autocorrelation analysis shows a kind of periodicity on the photospheric intensity and its mean wavelengths are 11.3. The size of the cellular pattern is comparable, in magnitude, to that of mesogranulation found by Novemberet al. (1981) on the velocitygram obtained at the Sacramento Peak Observatory. Then the cellular pattern revealed by the chain of granules in the present study may be bentatively identified as the mesogranulation. The possible physical connection between the mesogranulation and the clumpy assemblage of active granules is briefly discussed.     

Morphological study of the solar granulation

High resolution images of the solar granulation show the presence of the small dot-like dark regions in the granulation cells. From the study of the characteristics of these dark regions, it is found that the dark regions are formed without any relations to the presence of the magnetic field. Moreover, it is observed that a granulation cell splits in a few minutes after the formation of the dark regions in the cell. Similarities and differences between the granules with the dark regions and the so-called exploding granules are discussed.     

Shift-and-add reconstruction of solar granulation images

To restore an atmospherically degraded image of solar granulation the shift-and-add (SAA) method is applied to its specklegrams. It is the first time, to the best of our knowledge, that such a technique has been used for image reconstruction of solar granulation, a largely extended target. SAA, therefore, enables us to monitor restored images of solar granulation in a simple and fast way.     

Morphological study of the solar granulation

A time sequence of granulation images of 46 min long has allowed us to make a detailed study of the evolution of granules in an area of approximately 17″ × 17″ on the solar surface. It is found that the granules evolve by repeated fragmentation into smaller granules or merging with adjacent ones and that there are few granules which appear in the intergranular lanes as new granules (Table III). The statistical nature of granules is as follows:

1. A family of granules is defined as a group of granules produced from a single granule by fragmentation or merging. The lifetime is estimated for single granules and for families of granules. The lifetime shows a close correlation with the maximum size of a single granule or with that of the largest granule belonging to a family (Figures 5 and 7).
2. The smaller the size, the more probably a granule will disappear without further fragmentation or merging. The granule whose size is larger than 2″ will certainly split or merge as the next evolutional step (Table IV).

     

Two-dimensional spectroscopic time series of solar granulation

In this paper we investigate the dynamics of the solar granulation by analyzing time series of 2D spatially highly resolved spectrograms. These were obtained by spatial scans covering a field of 12 8″ × 20″. The advantage of this method is a high spectral resolution, however, the data are not taken simultaneously and to cover the field described above 50 exposures taken sequentially in time are necessary. Therefore, to obtain one map about 2 minutes are required. Plots of the evolution of different line parameters are given as well as the decay of correlation functions. The correlations between the first map of line parameters and successive maps (which are separated by about 2 minutes) were investigated showing a rapid decay down to a correlation coefficient of 0.4 within 4 minutes, the velocity pattern in the field observed varies on smaller time scales. The temporal variation of correlation between the line parameters for the different lines shows a periodic signal related to 5-min oscillations which could not be totally filtered. The evolution of the correlation functions between line parameters is analyzed which gives an error estimate of all correlation values found in the literature. For the first time it is explicitly shown how evolution in a selected photospheric field influences the evolution of granular/intergranular structures.     

Center to limb variation of solar granulation

The density dependence of solar EUV line intensity ratios from Mg VIII, Si VII, S IX and Si IX ions have been used to determine electron densities in the quiet Sun and coronal holes. The line intensity values have been computed using a model atmosphere of Kopp and Orrall (1976) in order to emphasize the utility of the lines studied which could be compared with observational data that future missions might provide.     

Statistical analysis of a solar granulation plate

Two-dimensional autocorrelation function and power spectrum per unit area are given for a solar granulation plate taken at the Pic-du-Midi Observatory. A comparison is made between our result and the power per unit wave number taken from the Schwarzschild stratoscope data.     

Changes of solar magnetic asymmetry

The results of an analysis of the north–south asymmetry in solar activity and solar magnetic fields are reported. The analysis is based on solar mean magnetic field and solar polar magnetic field time series, 1975–2015 (http://wso.stanford.edu), and the Greenwich sunspot data, 1875–2015 (http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/greenwch.shtml). A long-term cycle (small-scale magnetic fields, toroidal component) of ~140 years is identified in the north–south asymmetry in solar activity by analyzing the cumulative sum of the time series for the north–south asymmetry in the area of sunspots. A comparative analysis of the variations in the cumulative sums of the time series composed of the daily values of the sun’s global magnetic field and in the asymmetry of the daily sunspot data over the time interval 1975–2015 shows that the photospheric large-scale magnetic fields may also have a similar long-term cycle. The variations in the asymmetry of large-scale and small-scale solar magnetic fields (sunspot area) are in sync until 2005.5 and in antiphase since then.     

Two-dimensional spectroscopic time series of solar granulation

In this paper we investigate the dynamics of the solar granulation by analyzing time series of 2D spatially highly resolved spectrograms. These were obtained by spatial scans covering a field of 12 8″ × 20″. The advantage of this method is a high spectral resolution, however, the data are not taken simultaneously and to cover the field described above 50 exposures taken sequentially in time are necessary. Therefore, to obtain one map about 2 minutes are required. Plots of the evolution of different line parameters are given as well as the decay of correlation functions. The correlations between the first map of line parameters and successive maps (which are separated by about 2 minutes) were investigated showing a rapid decay down to a correlation coefficient of 0.4 within 4 minutes, the velocity pattern in the field observed varies on smaller time scales. The temporal variation of correlation between the line parameters for the different lines shows a periodic signal related to 5-min oscillations which could not be totally filtered. The evolution of the correlation functions between line parameters is analyzed which gives an error estimate of all correlation values found in the literature. For the first time it is explicitly shown how evolution in a selected photospheric field influences the evolution of granular/intergranular structures.     

A morphological study of the solar granulation

Some properties of the photospheric granulation near the centre of the quiet sun have been investigated on the basis of two high-definition Stratoscope photographs. We obtain (1) a number density of 54 granules per 10 × 10, (2) a total number of granules on the whole surface of 6.3 × 10⁶, (3) a mean cell diameter of 1.5 or 1100 km and a mean granule diameter of 1.2 or 850 km, the difference of 250 km being ascribed to the mean width of the dark intergranular lanes, (4) frequency distributions of cell diameters and granule diameters (Figures 1 and 2), and (5) an isophotal map in relative intensity (Figure 3). In general, larger granules are brighter than smaller granules (Figure 4). Cross-section profiles are shown for some granules and intergranular lanes (Figures 5 and 6). These quantities have not yet been corrected for the finite resolution of the telescope.     

North-South asymmetry in the solar flare index

This paper reports the results of a study of the N-S asymmetry in the flare index using the results of Knoka (1985) combined with our results for the solar cycles 17 to the current cycle 22. By comparing the time-variation of the asymmetry curve with the solar activity variation of the 11-year cycle, we have found that the flare index asymmetry curve is not in phase with the solar cycle and that the asymmetry peaks during solar minimum. A periodic behaviour in the N-S asymmetry appears: the activity in one hemisphere is more important during the ascending part of the cycle whereas during the descending part the activity becomes more important in the other hemisphere. The dominance of flare activity in the southern hemisphere continues during cycle 22 and, according to our findings, this dominance will increase gradually during the following cycle 23.     

The effect of finite resolution on solar granulation

Some numerical experiments were performed in order to simulate the effect of finite resolution on solar granulation. When a two-dimensional pattern is smeared, another pattern emerges whose nature depends on the width of the smearing function rather than the original pattern. The size of the structures present in a typical granulation photograph is about that which would be expected from the smearing of smaller structures by the effect of atmospheric seeing. Only Stratoscope photographs appear to have unambiguously determined the nature of solar granulation.     

On the rms intensity fluctuation of solar granulation

Using a selected high definition granulation photograph obtained with a 40 cm aperture telescope from the ground, a new determination of the rms intensity fluctuation is attempted. We find, at 5500 Å, a value of 0.058 without, of 0.067 with correction for theoretical diffraction only, and 0.095 ± 0.015 as the most probable value, if the differences between our power spectrum and those given in the literature is interpreted as due to a residual seeing of = 0.3 in our photograph.Mitteilungen aus dem Fraunhofer Institut Nr. 104.     

Long-term variations in north-south asymmetry of solar activity

We present a new set of data on relative sunspot number (total, northern hemisphere, and southern hemisphere), taken for the 37-yr period 1947 to 1983; this constitutes a particularly coherent and consistent set of data, taken by the same observer (Hisako Koyama) using the same observing instrument. These data are combined with earlier data (White and Trotter, 1977) on the variation of sunspot areas for both solar hemispheres from 1874 to 1971. The combined data, covering 110 years and 10 solar cycles, are examined for periodicity in solar activity north-south asymmetry. We show that, in general, northern hemisphere activity, displayed as either An/(An + As) or Rn/(Rn + Rs), peaks about two years after sunspot minimum. This peak is greater during even cycles, pointing to a 22-yr periodicity in north-south asymmetry in solar activity, suggesting that the asymmetry is related to the 22-yr solar magnetic cycle. We demonstrate that the largest and most protracted period of northern-hemisphere activity excess in the last 110 years has occurred from 1959 to 1970; we show that there is a strong correlation between northern activity excess and a cosmic-ray density gradient perpendicular to the ecliptic plane, pointing southward, which is evident in cosmic-ray diurnal variation data from the Embudo underground cosmic-ray telescope.