Where the granular flows bend

Abstract

Based on IMaX/Sunrise data, we report on a previously undetected phenomenon in solar granulation. We show that in a very narrow region separating granules and intergranular lanes the spectral line width of the Fe I 5250.2 A line becomes extremely small. We offer an explanation of this observation with the help of magneto-convection simulations. These regions with extremely small line widths correspond to the places where the granular flows bend from mainly upflow in granules to downflow in intergranular lanes. We show that the resolution and image stability achieved by IMaX/Sunrise are important requisites to detect this interesting phenomenon.

Accepted for the Sunrise Special Issue of ApJL

References in corpus (1)

• Sunrise: instrument, mission, data and first results

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Sunrise: instrument, mission, data and first results
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• The Quiet-Sun Photosphere and Chromosphere
• Average radial structures of gas convection in the solar granulation
• Study of the Dynamics of Convective Turbulence in the Solar Granulation by Spectral Line Broadening and Asymmetry
• Analysis of Pseudo-Lyapunov Exponents of Solar Convection Using State-of-the-Art Observations