High spatial-resolution images of the solar photosphere show the granulation
phenomenon: a pattern of bright cells of irregular polygonal shape and
typical sizes in the range of 1000-2000 km, separated by narrow dark lanes.
The solar photosphere in white light
High spatial-resolution images of the solar photosphere show the granulation
phenomenon: a pattern of bright cells of irregular polygonal shape and
typical sizes in the range of 1000-2000 km, separated by narrow dark lanes.
Figure: High-resolution photograph of solar granulation around 430 nm. This image shows many granules in different stages of evolution. Several granules have dark (cool) centers, a precursor to their disintegration, while others can be seen in the process of cleaving. The smallest bright features between granules are connected with magnetic structures.
This image was recorded by Göran Scharmer with the Swedish vacuum solar telescope on La Palma.
Other groups active in solar granulation include those at the Kiepenheuer-Institut
für Sonnenphysik in Freiburg, Germany; Institut
für Geophysik, Astrophysik und Meteorologie in Graz, Austria;
Instituto de Astrofísica
de Canarias on Tenerife; the Dutch
Open Telescope on La Palma; the U.S. National
Solar Observatory on Kitt Peak & Sacramento Peak; Lockheed
Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory in Palo Alto, and others.
For a review of solar granulation, see H.C.Spruit, Å.Nordlund
& A.M.Title: Solar Convection, ARA&A
28, 263-301 (1990).
Updated JD 2,451,700
