[38.02] Stokes Asymmetries In and Around Sunspots

AAS 200th meeting, Albuquerque, NM, June 2002
Session 38. Solar Photosphere, Chromosphere and Transition Region
Display, Tuesday, June 4, 2002, 10:00am-6:30pm, SW Exhibit Hall

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[38.02] Stokes Asymmetries In and Around Sunspots

K. D. Leka (Colorado Research Associates Div., NWRA)

In an ideal homogeneous atmosphere with minimal complications from gradients or unresolved features, photospheric Stokes Spectra should have a straightforward pattern that is symmetric in wavelength for linear polarization and anti-symmetric for circular. Deviations from these idealized shapes can indicate gradients in the magnetic field, in the velocity of plasma flows (see, e.g., Leka & Steiner 2001), and completely different atmospheres that are unresolved within the pixel. Using Stokes spectra from the NSO/HAO Advanced Stokes Polarimeter of a sunspot obtained with high (sub-arcsecond) spatial resolution, we examine the systematic patterns of asymmetries and multiple-lobes in the spectra over the sunspot. Initial results indicate the presence of high-velocity and even supersonic flows in and around sunspot penumbrae, accompanied by multiple magnetic components (of the same and/or opposite sign) throughout the sunspot structures.

This work was funded by NSF-ATM970782.

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