Evolution of small-scale magnetic elements in the vicinity of granular-size swirl convective motions

Abstract

Advances in solar instrumentation have led to widespread use of time series to study the dynamics of solar features, especially at small spatial scales and at very fast cadences. Physical processes at such scales are important as building blocks for many others occurring from the lower to the upper layers of the solar atmosphere and beyond, ultimately for understanding the bigger picture of solar activity. Ground-based (Solar Swedish Telescope) and space-borne (Hinode) high-resolution solar data are analyzed in a quiet-Sun region displaying negative polarity small-scale magnetic concentrations and a cluster of bright points observed in G-band. The studied region is characterized by the presence of two granular-size convective vortex-type plasma motions, one of which appears to be affecting the dynamics of both magnetic features and bright points in its vicinity and is therefore the main target of our investigations. We followed the evolution of bright points, intensity variations at different atmospheric height and magnetic evolution for a set of interesting selected regions. A description of the evolution of the photospheric plasma motions in the region near the convective vortex is shown, as well as some plausible cases for convective collapse detected in Stokes profiles.