Bibcode
Bonet, J. A.; Cabello, I.; Sánchez-Almeida, J.
Bibliographical reference
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 539, id.A6
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3
2012
Journal
Citations
15
Refereed citations
12
Description
Context. The quiet Sun magnetic fields produce ubiquitous bright points
(BPs) that cover a significant fraction of the solar surface. Their
contribution to the total solar irradiance (TSI) is so-far unknown. Aims: We aim at measuring the center-to-limb variation (CLV) of the
fraction of solar surface covered by quiet Sun magnetic bright points.
The fraction is referred to as the fraction of covered surface (FCS).
Methods: We count the area covered by BPs in G-band images
obtained at various heliocentric angles with the 1-m Swedish Solar
Telescope on La Palma. We restore the images to bring them close to the
diffraction limit of the instrument (~0'.1). Results: The FCS is
largest at the disk center (≃1%), and then drops down to become
≃0.2% at μ ≃ 0.3 (where μ is the cosine of the
heliocentric angle). The relationship has a large scatter, which we
evaluate by comparing different subfields within our FOVs. We develop a
toy-model to describe the observed CLV, which considers the BPs as
depressions in the mean solar photosphere characterized by a depth, a
width, and a spread in the inclinations. Although the model is poorly
constrained by observations, it shows the BPs to be shallow structures
(depth < width) with a large range of inclinations. We also estimate
how different parts of the solar disk may contribute to the TSI
variations, finding that 90% is contributed by BPs with μ > 0.5,
and half of it is due to BPs with μ > 0.8.
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