Bibcode
DOI
Domínguez Cerdeña, I.; Sánchez Almeida, J.; Kneer, F.
Referencia bibliográfica
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 646, Issue 2, pp. 1421-1435.
Fecha de publicación:
8
2006
Revista
Número de citas
70
Número de citas referidas
55
Descripción
We study the quiet Sun magnetic fields using spectropolarimetric
observations of the infrared and visible Fe I lines at 6301.5, 6302.5,
15648, and 15653 Å. Magnetic field strengths and filling factors
are inferred by the simultaneous fit of the observed Stokes profiles
under the MISMA hypothesis. The observations cover an intranetwork
region at the solar disk center. We analyze 2280 Stokes profiles whose
polarization signals are above noise in the two spectral ranges, which
correspond to 40% of the field of view. Most of these profiles can be
reproduced only with a model atmosphere including three magnetic
components with very different field strengths, which indicates the
coexistence of kG and sub-kG fields in our 1.5" resolution elements. We
measure an unsigned magnetic flux density of 9.6 G considering the full
field of view. Half of the pixels present magnetic fields with mixed
polarities in the resolution element. The fraction of mixed polarities
increases as the polarization weakens. We compute the probability
density function of finding each magnetic field strength. It has a
significant contribution of kG field strengths, which concentrates most
of the observed magnetic flux and energy. This kG contribution has a
preferred magnetic polarity, while the polarity of the weak fields is
balanced.