Investigation of Umbral Dots with the New Vacuum Solar Telescope

Abstract

Umbral dots (UDs) are small isolated brightenings observed in sunspot umbrae. They are convective phenomena existing inside umbrae. UDs are usually divided into central UDs (CUDs) and peripheral UDs (PUDs) according to their positions inside an umbra. Our purpose is to investigate UD properties and analyze their relationships, and further to find whether or not the properties depend on umbral magnetic field strengths. Thus, we selected high-resolution TiO images of four active regions (ARs) taken under the best seeing conditions with the \textit{New Vacuum Solar Telescope} in the Fuxian Solar Observatory of the Yunnan Astronomical Observatory, China. The four ARs (NOAA 11598, 11801, 12158, and 12178) include six sunspots. A total of 1220 CUDs and 603 PUDs were identified. Meanwhile, the radial component of the vector magnetic field of the sunspots taken with the \textit{Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager} on-board the \textit{Solar Dynamics Observatory} was used to analyze relationships between UD properties and umbral magnetic field strengths. We find that diameters and lifetimes of UDs exhibit an increasing trend with the brightness, but velocities do not. Moreover, diameters, intensities, lifetimes and velocities depend on the surrounding magnetic field. A CUD diameter was found larger, the CUD brighter, its lifetime longer, and its motion slower in a weak umbral magnetic field environment than in a strong one.