Sun’s small-scale magnetic field : from quiet region to polar region

Key Laboratory of Solar Activity, National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100012, China

Abstract

In this contribution, we present our recent effort in understanding the solar small-scale magnetic field. Firstly, with the unique data from MDI/SOHO in an interval embodying solar cycle 23, we find three categories of small-scale magnetic elements, and their number variations shows no correlation, anti-correlation and correlation with sunspots, respectively. The possible sources for the three categories of small-scale magnetic elements are discussed. Secondly, by the observations from SOT on board Hinode, we study the properties of vector magnetic field in quiet Sun. The following results are summarized. (1) Two categories of horizontal magnetic elements are disclosed, and most of horizontal elements are associate with the emergence of U-loop. (2) The magnetic field of quiet region is obviously non-potential. The filigrees and network bright points are characterized by strong longitudinal field, large electric helicity and free energy density. (3) For quiet region, the intra-network region displays a predominance of weak field concentration, but network region shows the coexisting of weak field with strong field; For polar region, the strong field occupies 6.7% of the region. (4) On quiet region, the magnetic field mainly resides in the inter-granular lanes. By the observation, we reconstruct an average granular model, for which the detailed distributions of vector fields, Doppler velocity and intensity are obtained.