DETECTION OF SUPERGRANULATION ALIGNMENT IN POLAR REGIONS OF THE SUN BY HELIOSEISMOLOGY

Journal Article · Mon Jan 10 04:00:00 EST 2011 · Astrophysical Journal Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/726/2/L17· OSTI ID:21560580

Nagashima, Kaori; Junwei, Zhao; Kosovichev, Alexander G ^[1]; Sekii, Takashi ^[2]

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1. W.W. Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory, Stanford University, 452 Lomita Mall, Stanford, CA 94305-4085 (United States)
2. National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, 2-21-1 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588 (Japan)

We report on a new phenomenon of 'alignment' of supergranulation cells in the polar regions of the Sun. Recent high-resolution data sets obtained by the Solar Optical Telescope on board the Hinode satellite enabled us to investigate supergranular structures in high-latitude regions of the Sun. We have carried out a local helioseismology time-distance analysis of the data and detected acoustic travel-time variations due to the supergranular flows. The supergranulation cells in both the north and south polar regions show systematic alignment patterns in the north-south direction. The south-pole data sets obtained in a month-long Hinode campaign indicate that the supergranulation alignment property may be quite common in the polar regions. We also discuss the latitudinal dependence of the supergranulation cell sizes; the data show that the east-west cell size decreases toward higher latitudes.

• OSTI ID: 21560580
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal Letters, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Letters Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 726; ISSN 2041-8205
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ALIGNMENT
CRYOSPHERE
DETECTION
MAIN SEQUENCE STARS
POLAR REGIONS
SOLAR ACTIVITY
SOLAR GRANULATION
STARS
STELLAR ACTIVITY
SUN