A Comparative Analysis of Photospheric Bright Points in an Active Region and in the Quiet Sun

Abstract

We present a comparative study of photometric and dynamic properties of photospheric bright points (BPs) observed at the disk centre in the active region (AR) NOAA 10912 and in the quiet Sun. We found that the average concentration of BPs is 54% larger in the AR than in the quiet Sun. We also measure a decrease of the BP concentration and an increase of their size moving away from the AR centre. However, these variations can be ascribed to the variation of the spatial resolution and image quality in the field of view of the AR dataset. We also found that BPs in the quiet Sun are associated with larger downflow motions than those measured within the AR. Finally, from our measurements of contrast and velocity along the line of sight, we deduced that BPs are less bright in high magnetic flux density regions than in quiet regions, due to a lower efficiency of convection in the former regions.