New solar telescope in Big Bear: Evidence for super-diffusivity and small-scale solar dynamos?

摘要

The 1.6m clear aperture New Solar Telescope (NST) in Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) is now providing the highest resolution solar data ever. These data have revealed surprises about the Sun on small-scales including the observation that bright points (BPs), which can be used as proxies for the intense, compact magnetic elements that are apparent in photospheric intergranular lanes. The BPs are ever more numerous on ever smaller spatial scales as though there were no limit to how small the BPs can be. Here we discuss high resolution NST data on BPs that provide support for the ideas that a turbulent regime of super-diffusivity dominates in the quiet Sun, and there are local dynamos operating near the solar surface.