On the inhomogeneities of the sunspot penumbra

2007/03/01 by R. Schlichenmaier, Schlichenmaier, R., Daniel Mueller +4
Arts and Humanities · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Historical Astronomy and Related Studies #Historical and Architectural Studies #astro-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0703021

8 pages, 3 figures, to appear in proceedings of 'Modern Solar Facilities - Advanced Solar Science', F. Kneer, K. G. Puschmann, A. D. Wittmann (eds.)

arxiv created 2007/03/01 · openalex publication_date 2007/03/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

The penumbra is ideally suited to challenge our understanding of magnetohydrodynamics. The energy transport takes place as magnetoconvection in inclined magnetic fields under the effect of strong radiative cooling at the surface. The relevant processes happen at small spatial scales. In this contribution we describe and elaborate on these small-scale inhomogeneities of a sunspot penumbra. We describe the penumbral properties inferred from imaging, spectroscopic and spectropolarimetric data, and discuss the question of how these observations can be understood in terms of proposed models and theoretical concepts.

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