Bibcode
Domínguez Cerdeña, I.; Sánchez-Almeida, J.; Kneer, F.
Bibliographical reference
Solar Polarization 4, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 358, Proceedings of the conference held 19-23 September, 2005, in Boulder, Colorado, USA. Edited by R. Casini and B. W. Lites, p.48
Advertised on:
12
2006
Citations
1
Refereed citations
1
Description
The quiet Sun photospheric plasma has a variety of magnetic field
strengths going from zero to 1800 G. The empirical characterization of
these field strengths requires a probability density function (PDF),
i.e., a function P(B) describing the fraction of quiet Sun occupied by
each field strength B. We present a method to combine magnetic field
strength measurements based on the Zeeman effect and the Hanle effect in
order to estimate the true P(B). The application of the method to real
observations renders a set of possible PDFs, which outline the general
characteristics of the quiet Sun magnetic fields. Their most probable
field strength differs from zero. The magnetic energy density is a
significant fraction of the kinetic energy of the granular motions at
the base of the photosphere (larger than 15 or larger than
2×103 erg cm-3). The unsigned flux density
(or mean magnetic field strength) has to be between 130 G and 190 G. A
significant part of the unsigned flux (between 10% and 40%) and of the
magnetic energy (between 40% and 80%) are provided by the field
strengths larger than 1 kG which, however, occupy only a small fraction
of the surface (between 1% and 4%).
The quiet Sun photosphere has far more unsigned magnetic flux and
magnetic energy than the active regions and the network together.