Bibcode
Felipe, T.; Kuckein, C.; Khomenko, E.; Thaler, I.
Bibliographical reference
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 621, id.A43, 8 pp.
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1
2019
Journal
Citations
13
Refereed citations
12
Description
Context. Solar active regions show a wide variety of oscillatory
phenomena. The presence of the magnetic field leads to the appearance of
several wave modes whose behavior is determined by the sunspot thermal
and magnetic structure. Aims: We aim to study the relation
between the umbral and penumbral waves observed at the high photosphere
and the magnetic field topology of the sunspot. Methods:
Observations of the sunspot in active region NOAA 12662 obtained with
the GREGOR telescope (Observatorio del Teide, Tenerife, Spain) were
acquired on 2017 June 17. The data set includes a temporal series in the
Fe I 5435 Å line obtained with the imaging spectrograph GREGOR
Fabry-Pérot Interferometer (GFPI) and a spectropolarimetric
raster map acquired with the GREGOR Infrared Spectrograph (GRIS) in the
10 830 Å spectral region. The Doppler velocity deduced from the
restored Fe I 5435 Å line has been determined, and the magnetic
field vector of the sunspot has been inferred from spectropolarimetric
inversions of the Ca I 10 839 Å and the Si I 10 827 Å lines.
Results: A two-armed spiral wavefront has been identified in the
evolution of the two-dimensional velocity maps from the Fe I 5435
Å line. The wavefronts initially move counterclockwise in the
interior of the umbra, and develop into radially outward propagating
running penumbral waves when they reach the umbra-penumbra boundary. The
horizontal propagation of the wavefronts approximately follows the
direction of the magnetic field, which shows changes in the magnetic
twist with height and horizontal position. Conclusions: The
spiral wavefronts are interpreted as the visual pattern of slow
magnetoacoustic waves which propagate upward along magnetic field lines.
Their apparent horizontal propagation is due to their sequential arrival
to different horizontal positions at the formation height of the Fe I
5435 Å line, as given by the inclination and orientation of the
magnetic field.
The movie associated to Fig. 2 is available at http://https://www.aanda.org
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