Bibcode
Viticchié, B.; Sánchez-Almeida, J.
Bibliographical reference
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 530, id.A14
Advertised on:
6
2011
Journal
Citations
50
Refereed citations
48
Description
Aims: A recent analysis of polarization measurements of HINODE
SOT/SP in the quiet Sun pointed out very complex shapes of Stokes V
profiles. Here we present the first classification of the SOT/SP
circular polarization measurements with the aim of highlighting
exhaustively the whole variety of Stokes V shapes emerging from the
quiet Sun. Methods: k-means is used to classify HINODE SOT/SP
Stokes V profiles observed in the quiet Sun network and internetwork
(IN). We analyze a 302 × 162 arcsec2 field-of-view
(FOV) that can be considered a complete sample of quiet Sun measurements
performed at the disk center with 0.32 arcsec angular resolution and
10-3 polarimetric sensitivity. This classification allows us
to divide the whole dataset into classes, with each class represented by
a cluster profile, i.e., the average of the profiles in the class. Results: The set of 35 cluster profiles derived from the analysis
completely characterizes the SOT/SP quiet Sun measurements. The
separation between network and IN profile shapes is evident - classes in
the network are not present in the IN, and vice versa. Asymmetric
profiles are approximately 93% of the total number of profiles. Among
these, about 34% of the profiles are strongly asymmetric, and they can
be divided into three families: blue-lobe, red-lobe, and Q-like
profiles. The blue-lobe profiles tend to be associated with upflows
(granules), whereas the red-lobe and Q-like ones appear in downflows
(intergranular lanes). Conclusions: These profiles need to be
interpreted considering model atmospheres different from a uniformly
magnetized Milne-Eddington (ME) atmosphere, i.e., characterized by
gradients and/or discontinuities in the magnetic field and velocity
along the line-of-sight (LOS). We propose the use of cluster profiles as
a standard archive to test inversion codes, and to check the validity
and/or completeness of synthetic profiles produced by MHD simulations.