Latitudinal variation of the solar photospheric intensity

Details Latitudinal variation of the solar photospheric intensity Latitudinal variation of the solar photospheric intensity

2007-10-16

arxiv.org/abs/0710.3121v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

24 pages, 8 figs, accepted in ApJ

Scientific paper

10.1086/524655

We have examined images from the Precision Solar Photometric Telescope (PSPT) at the Mauna Loa Solar Observatory (MLSO) in search of latitudinal variation in the solar photospheric intensity. Along with the expected brightening of the solar activity belts, we have found a weak enhancement of the mean continuum intensity at polar latitudes (continuum intensity enhancement $\sim0.1 - 0.2%$ corresponding to a brightness temperature enhancement of $\sim2.5{\rm K}$). This appears to be thermal in origin and not due to a polar accumulation of weak magnetic elements, with both the continuum and CaIIK intensity distributions shifted towards higher values with little change in shape from their mid-latitude distributions. Since the enhancement is of low spatial frequency and of very small amplitude it is difficult to separate from systematic instrumental and processing errors. We provide a thorough discussion of these and conclude that the measurement captures real solar latitudinal intensity variations.

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