Photospheric supergranular flows and magnetic flux emergence

Abstract

A recent study carried out on high-sensitivity SUNRISE/IMAX data has reported about areas of limited flux emergence in the quiet Sun. By exploiting an independent and longer (four hours) data set acquired by Hinode/SOT, we investigate these regions in more detail by analysing their spatial distribution and relation with the supergranular flow. Our findings, while confirming these calm areas, also show that the emergence rate of small magnetic elements is largely suppressed at the locations where the divergence of the supergranular plasma flows is positive. This means that the dead-calm areas previously reported in literature are not randomly distributed across the solar photosphere, but are linked to the supergranular cells themselves. These results are discussed in the framework of the recent literature.