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