Magnetic Structure of Umbral Dots Observed with the Hinode Solar Optical Telescope

Abstract

Abstract A high-resolution, seeing-free spectroscopic observation of a decaying sunspot was made with the Solar Optical Telescope aboard the Hinode satellite. The target was NOAA 10944, located in the west side of the solar surface from 2007 March 2 to March 4. The umbra included many umbral dots (UDs) with a size of $\sim$300 km in continuum light. We report on the magnetic structures and Doppler velocity fields around UDs, based on the Milne–Eddington inversions of the two iron absorption lines at 6302 Å. Histograms of the magnetic field strength (B), inclination angle (i), and Doppler velocity (v) of UDs showed a center-to-limb variation; observed at the disk center, the UDs had (i) slightly smaller field strength ($\Delta B$$=$$-$17 Gauss) and (ii) relative blue shifts ($\Delta v$$=$ 28 ms$^{-1}$) compared to their surroundings. When the sunspot got close to the limb, UDs and their surroundings showed almost no difference in the magnetic and Doppler values. This center-to-limb variation can be understood by the formation height difference in a cusp-shaped magnetized atmosphere around UDs, due to the weakly magnetized hot gas intrusion. In addition, some UDs showed the oscillatory light curves with multiple peaks separated around 10 min, which may indicate the presence of the oscillatory convection. We discuss our results within the frameworks of two theoretical models: the monolithic model (Schüssler & Vögler 2006, ApJ, 641, L73) and the field-free intrusion model (Spruit & Scharmer 2006, A&A, 447, 343).