Photospheric Swirls in a Quiet-Sun Region
Swirl-shaped flow structures have been observed throughout the solar atmosphere, in both emission and absorption, at different altitudes and locations, and are believed to be associated with magnetic structures. However, the distribution patterns of such swirls, especially their spatial positions, r...
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2025-01-01
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| Series: | The Astrophysical Journal |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad99d4 |
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| author | Quan Xie Jiajia Liu Chris J. Nelson Robert Erdélyi Yuming Wang |
| author_facet | Quan Xie Jiajia Liu Chris J. Nelson Robert Erdélyi Yuming Wang |
| author_sort | Quan Xie |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Swirl-shaped flow structures have been observed throughout the solar atmosphere, in both emission and absorption, at different altitudes and locations, and are believed to be associated with magnetic structures. However, the distribution patterns of such swirls, especially their spatial positions, remain unclear. Using the Automated Swirl Detection Algorithm, we identified swirls from the high-resolution photospheric observations, centered on Fe i 630.25 nm, of a quiet region near the Sun's central meridian by the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope. Via a detailed study of the locations of the detected small-scale swirls with an average radius of ~300 km, we found that most of them are located in lanes between mesogranules (which have an average diameter of ~5.4 Mm) instead of the commonly believed intergranular lanes. The squared rotation, expansion/contraction and vector speeds, and proxy kinetic energy are all found to follow Gaussian distributions. Their rotation speed, expansion/contraction speed, and circulation are positively correlated with their radius. All these results suggest that photospheric swirls at different scales and locations across the observational 56 $\mathop{.}\limits^{\unicode{x02033}}$ 5 × 57 $\mathop{.}\limits^{\unicode{x02033}}$ 5 field of view could share the same triggering mechanism at preferred spatial and energy scales. A comparison with our previous work suggests that the number of photospheric swirls is positively correlated with the number of local magnetic concentrations, stressing again the close relation between swirls and local magnetic concentrations: the number of swirls should positively correlate with the number and strength of local magnetic concentrations. |
| format | Article |
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| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1538-4357 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
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| series | The Astrophysical Journal |
| spelling | doaj-art-05d6d1e3413b4f02a9a462e175db084d2025-01-15T10:07:18ZengIOP PublishingThe Astrophysical Journal1538-43572025-01-0197912710.3847/1538-4357/ad99d4Photospheric Swirls in a Quiet-Sun RegionQuan Xie0https://orcid.org/0009-0008-8972-2726Jiajia Liu1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2569-1840Chris J. Nelson2https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1400-8356Robert Erdélyi3https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3439-4127Yuming Wang4https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8887-3919Deep Space Exploration Laboratory/School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China , Hefei 230026, People’s Republic of China ; jiajialiu@ustc.edu.cn; CAS Key Laboratory of Geospace Environment, Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China , Hefei 230026, People’s Republic of ChinaDeep Space Exploration Laboratory/School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China , Hefei 230026, People’s Republic of China ; jiajialiu@ustc.edu.cn; CAS Key Laboratory of Geospace Environment, Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China , Hefei 230026, People’s Republic of ChinaEuropean Space Agency (ESA) , European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), Keplerlaan 1, 2201 AZ Noordwijk, The NetherlandsSolar Physics and Space Plasma Research Centre (SP2RC), School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Sheffield , Sheffield S3 7RH, UK; Department of Astronomy, Eötvös Loránd University , Budapest, Pázmány P. sétány 1/A, H-1117, Hungary; Gyula Bay Zoltan Solar Observatory (GSO) , Hungarian Solar Physics Foundation (HSPF) Petőfi tér 3., Gyula H-5700, HungaryDeep Space Exploration Laboratory/School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China , Hefei 230026, People’s Republic of China ; jiajialiu@ustc.edu.cn; CAS Key Laboratory of Geospace Environment, Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China , Hefei 230026, People’s Republic of ChinaSwirl-shaped flow structures have been observed throughout the solar atmosphere, in both emission and absorption, at different altitudes and locations, and are believed to be associated with magnetic structures. However, the distribution patterns of such swirls, especially their spatial positions, remain unclear. Using the Automated Swirl Detection Algorithm, we identified swirls from the high-resolution photospheric observations, centered on Fe i 630.25 nm, of a quiet region near the Sun's central meridian by the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope. Via a detailed study of the locations of the detected small-scale swirls with an average radius of ~300 km, we found that most of them are located in lanes between mesogranules (which have an average diameter of ~5.4 Mm) instead of the commonly believed intergranular lanes. The squared rotation, expansion/contraction and vector speeds, and proxy kinetic energy are all found to follow Gaussian distributions. Their rotation speed, expansion/contraction speed, and circulation are positively correlated with their radius. All these results suggest that photospheric swirls at different scales and locations across the observational 56 $\mathop{.}\limits^{\unicode{x02033}}$ 5 × 57 $\mathop{.}\limits^{\unicode{x02033}}$ 5 field of view could share the same triggering mechanism at preferred spatial and energy scales. A comparison with our previous work suggests that the number of photospheric swirls is positively correlated with the number of local magnetic concentrations, stressing again the close relation between swirls and local magnetic concentrations: the number of swirls should positively correlate with the number and strength of local magnetic concentrations.https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad99d4Solar photosphereSolar observatories |
| spellingShingle | Quan Xie Jiajia Liu Chris J. Nelson Robert Erdélyi Yuming Wang Photospheric Swirls in a Quiet-Sun Region The Astrophysical Journal Solar photosphere Solar observatories |
| title | Photospheric Swirls in a Quiet-Sun Region |
| title_full | Photospheric Swirls in a Quiet-Sun Region |
| title_fullStr | Photospheric Swirls in a Quiet-Sun Region |
| title_full_unstemmed | Photospheric Swirls in a Quiet-Sun Region |
| title_short | Photospheric Swirls in a Quiet-Sun Region |
| title_sort | photospheric swirls in a quiet sun region |
| topic | Solar photosphere Solar observatories |
| url | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad99d4 |
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