Bibcode
Yadav, R.; Louis, R. E.; Mathew, S. K.
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 855, Issue 1, article id. 8, 10 pp. (2018).
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3
2018
Journal
Citations
6
Refereed citations
6
Description
Umbral dots (UDs) are transient, bright features observed in the umbral
region of a sunspot. We study the physical properties of UDs observed in
sunspots of different sizes. The aim of our study is to relate the
physical properties of UDs with the large-scale properties of sunspots.
For this purpose, we analyze high-resolution G-band images of 42
sunspots observed by Hinode/SOT, located close to disk center. The
images were corrected for instrumental stray light and restored with the
modeled point-spread function. An automated multilevel tracking
algorithm was employed to identify the UDs located in selected G-band
images. Furthermore, we employed Solar Dynamics Observatory/HMI,
limb-darkening-corrected, full-disk continuum images to estimate the
sunspot phase and epoch for the selected sunspots. The number of UDs
identified in different umbrae exhibits a linear relation to the umbral
size. The observed filling factor ranges from 3% to 7% and increases
with the mean umbral intensity. Moreover, the filling factor shows a
decreasing trend with the umbral size. We also found that the observed
mean and maximum intensities of UDs are correlated with the mean umbral
intensity. However, we do not find any significant relationship between
the mean (and maximum) intensity and effective diameter of UDs and the
sunspot area, epoch, and decay rate. We suggest that this lack of
relation could be due to either the distinct transition of spatial
scales associated with overturning convection in the umbra or the
shallow depth associated with UDs, or both.