Evidence of small-scale magnetic concentrations dragged by vortex motion of solar photospheric plasma

L. BALMACEDA, S. VARGAS DOMıNGUEZ, J. PALACIOS, I. CABELLO AND V. DOMINGO

ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS

EDP SCIENCES S A

Año: 2010 vol. 513 p. 1 - 4

0004-6361

Vortex-type motions have been measured by tracking bright points in high-resolution observations of the solar photosphere. These small-scale motions are thought to be determinant in the evolution of magnetic footpoints and their interaction with plasma and therefore likely to play a role in heating the upper solar atmosphere by twisting magnetic flux tubes. We report the observation of magnetic concentrations being dragged towards the center of a convective vortex motion in the solar photosphere from high-resolution ground-based and space-borne data. We describe this event by analyzing a series of images at different solar atmospheric layers. By computing horizontal proper motions, we detect a vortex whose center appears to be the draining point for the magnetic concentrations detected in magnetograms and well-correlated with the locations of bright points seen in G-band and CN images.