Evidence of magnetic field wrapping around penumbral filaments

We employ high-spatial resolution spectropolarimetric observations from the Solar Optical Telescope on-board the Hinode spacecraft to investigate the fine structure of the penumbral magnetic fields. The Stokes vector of two neutral iron lines at 630 nm is inverted at every spatial pixel to retrieve the depth-dependence of the magnetic field vector, line-of-sight velocity and thermodynamic parameters. We show that the azimuthal angle of the magnetic field vector has opposite sign on both sides above the penumbral filaments. This is consistent with the wrapping of an inclined field around the horizontal filaments. The wrapping effect is stronger for filaments with larger horizontal extensions. In addition, we find that the external magnetic field can penetrate into the intraspines, leading to non-radial magnetic fields inside them. These findings shed some light on the controversial small-scale structure of the sunspot penumbra.

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An edited version of this paper was published by EDP Sciences. Copyright 2008 European Southern Observatory.


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Author Borrero Santiago, Juan M.
Lites, Bruce W.
Solanki, S.
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2008-04-01T00:00:00
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Topic Category geoscientificInformation
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Metadata Date 2025-07-17T15:58:51.633251
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:6524
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Borrero Santiago, Juan M., Lites, Bruce W., Solanki, S.. (2008). Evidence of magnetic field wrapping around penumbral filaments. UCAR/NCAR - Library. https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7fb5350. Accessed 02 August 2025.

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