Bright Points in the Internetwork Quiet Sun

Sánchez Almeida, J.; Márquez, I.; Bonet, J. A.; Domínguez Cerdeña, I.; Muller, R.
Bibliographical reference

The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 609, Issue 2, pp. L91-L94.

Advertised on:
7
2004
Number of authors
5
IAC number of authors
3
Citations
100
Refereed citations
85
Description
High-resolution G-band images of the interior of a supergranulation cell show ubiquitous bright points (BPs; some 0.3 BPs per Mm2). They are located in intergranular lanes and often form chains of elongated blobs whose smallest dimension is at the resolution limit (135 km on the Sun). Most of them live for a few minutes, having peak intensities from 0.8 to 1.8 times the mean photospheric intensity. These BPs are probably tracing intense magnetic concentrations, whose existence has been inferred in spectropolarimetric measurements. Our finding provides a new convenient tool for the study of the internetwork magnetism, so far restricted to the interpretation of weak polarimetric signals.