Bibcode
DOI
Bellot Rubio, Luis R.; Rodríguez Hidalgo, Inés; Collados, Manuel; Khomenko, Elena; Ruiz Cobo, Basilio
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 560, Issue 2, pp. 1010-1019.
Advertised on:
10
2001
Journal
Citations
63
Refereed citations
52
Description
We present spectropolarimetric evidence of convective collapse and
destruction of magnetic flux by upward-moving fronts in the quiet Sun.
The observational material consists of time series of the full Stokes
vector of two infrared spectral lines emerging from regions associated
with Ca II K network points. The amplitude of the circular polarization
profiles of a particular spatial point is seen to increase while the
profiles are redshifted. It then decreases during a much shorter phase
characterized by large blueshifts. Inspection of the data indicates that
the blueshift occurs because of the sudden appearance of a new, strongly
displaced Stokes V profile of the same polarity. The amplification of
the magnetic signal takes place in a time interval of about 13 minutes,
while blueshifts and the concomitant decreasing Stokes V amplitudes last
for only 2 minutes. An inversion code based on the thin flux-tube
scenario has been applied to the data in order to derive the thermal,
magnetic, and dynamic structures of the atmosphere. According to our
results, the field strength undergoes a moderate increase from 400 to
600 G at z=0 km during the phase in which redshifts are present. The
observed redshifts are produced by internal downflows of up to 6 km
s-1 at z=0 km. After ~13 minutes, the material falling down
inside the tube appears to bounce off in the deeper layers, originating
an upward-propagating front whose manifestation on the Stokes V profiles
is a large blueshift. The front moves with a speed of 2.3 km
s-1 and has a downflow-to-upflow velocity difference of about
7 km s-1 initially and some 4 km s-1 after 2
minutes. It strongly weakens the magnetic field strength and may be
responsible for the complete destruction of the magnetic feature. The
observed behavior is in general agreement with theoretical predictions
of flux expulsion, convective collapse, and development of shocks within
magnetic flux tubes.