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Context. The photospheric Evershed flow is a distinct characteristic of penumbrae that is closely associated with the photometric and magnetic structure of sunspots. Aims. We analyse the properties of an anomalous flow in the photosphere in a sunspot penumbra and compare it with those of the regular Evershed flow. Methods. High-resolution spectropolarimetric observations of active region NOAA 11271 were obtained with the spectro-polarimeter (SP) on board Hinode. We used the magnetic field properties derived by aMilne-Eddington inversion. In addition, we used Ca II H images obtained by the broad-band filter instrument to study the low chromospheric response to the photospheric structure and Dopplergrams from the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager to follow the evolution of the photospheric flows. Results. We detect a blueshifted feature that appeared on the limb-side penumbra of a sunspot and that was present intermittently during the next two hours. It exhibited a maximum blueshift of 1.6 km s-1, an area of 5.2 arcsec2, and a maximum uninterrupted lifetime of 1 h. The blueshifted feature, when present, lies parallel to redshifts. Both blue- and redshifts flank a highly inclined or horizontal magnetic structure that is radially oriented in the penumbra. The low-cadence SP maps reveal changes in size, radial position in the penumbra, and line-of-sight (LOS) velocity of the blueshifted feature, from one scan to the next. There was an increase of nearly 500 G in the field strength with the onset of the blueshifts, particularly when the LOS velocity in the feature exceeded 1.5 km s-1. There was only a marginal reduction in the field inclination of about 10° with the increase in blueshifts. In the chromosphere, intense, arc-shaped brightenings were observed close to the location of the photospheric blueshifts, which extend from the edge of the umbral core to the penumbra-quiet Sun boundary. The intensity of these brightenings exceeds the background intensity by 30% to 65% with the strongest and largest brightenings observed about 30 min after the strongest blueshifts were detected at the photosphere. The close spatial proximity of the two phenomenon strongly suggests a causal relationship. Conclusions. The blueshifted feature represents plasma motion that could be related to a magnetic structure that rises in the solar atmosphere and subsequently reconnects with the ambient chromospheric magnetic field of the sunspot or an inverse Evershed flow, which would be unique in the photosphere. This transient phenomena is presumably related to the dynamic stability of the sunspot because the corresponding umbral core separated two days later at the location of the blueshifts and fragmented subsequently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electric current exists because of the non-potential magnetic field in solar active regions. We present the evolution of net current in the solar active region NOAA 10930 as the sum of shear current and twist current by using 27 high-resolution vector magnetograms obtained with Hinode/SOT-SP during 9 - 15 December 2006. This active region was highly eruptive and produced a large number of flares ranging from B to X class. We derived local distribution of shear and twist current densities in this active region and studied the evolution of net shear current (NSC) and net twist current (NTC) in the N-polarity and S-polarity regions separately. We found the following: i) The twist current density was dominant in the umbrae. ii) The footpoint of the emerging flux rope showed a dominant twist current. iii) The shear current density and twist current density appeared in alternate bands around the umbrae. iv) On the scale of the active region, NTC was always larger than NSC. v) Both NTC and NSC decreased after the onset of an X3.4 class flare that occurred on 13 December 2006. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major flare (of class X3.4) occurred on 2006 December 13 in the active region NOAA 10930. This flare event has remained interesting to solar researchers for studies related to particle acceleration during the flare process and the reconfiguration of magnetic fields as well as fine-scale features in the active region. The energy released during flares is also known to induce acoustic oscillations in the Sun. Here, we analyze the line-of-sight velocity patterns in this active region during the X3.4 flare using the Dopplergrams obtained by the Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) instrument. We have also analyzed the disk-integrated velocity observations of the Sun obtained by the Global Oscillation at Low Frequency (GOLF) instrument on board the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory spacecraft as well as full-disk collapsed velocity signals from GONG observations during this flare to study any possible connection between the flare-related changes seen in the local and global velocity oscillations in the Sun. We apply wavelet transform to the time series of the localized velocity oscillations as well as the global velocity oscillations in the Sun spanning the flare event. The line-of-sight velocity shows significant enhancement in some localized regions of the penumbra of this active region during the flare. The affected region is seen to be away from the locations of the flare ribbons and the hard X-ray footpoints. The sudden enhancement of this velocity seems to be caused by the Lorentz torce driven by the "magnetic jerk" in the localized penumbral region. Application of wavelet analysis to these flare-induced localized seismic signals shows significant enhancement in the high-frequency domain (5 < v < 8 mHz) and a feeble enhancement in the p-mode oscillations (2 < v < 5 mHz) during the flare. On the other hand, the wavelet analysis of GOLF velocity data and the full-disk collapsed GONG velocity data spanning the flare event indicates significant post-flare enhancements in the high-frequency global velocity oscillations in the Sun, as evident from the wavelet power spectrum and the corresponding scale-average variance. The present observations of the flare-induced seismic signals in the active region in context of the driving force are different as compared to previous reports on such cases. We also find indications of a connection between flare-induced localized seismic signals and the excitation of global high-frequency oscillations in the Sun. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of a time series of high spatial resolution vector magnetograms of the active region NOAA 10930 available from the Solar Optical Telescope SpectroPolarimeter on board Hinode revealed that there is a mixture of upward and downward currents in the two footpoints of an emerging flux rope. The flux emergence rate is almost the same in both the polarities. We observe that along with an increase in magnetic flux, the net current in each polarity increases initially for about three days after which it decreases. This net current is characterized by having exactly opposite signs in each polarity while its magnitude remains almost the same most of the time. The decrease of the net current in both the polarities is due to the increase of current having a sign opposite to that of the net current. The dominant current, with the same sign as the net current, is seen to increase first and then decreases during the major X-class flares. Evolution of non-dominant current appears to be a necessary condition for flare initiation. The above observations can be plausibly explained in terms of the superposition of two different force-free states resulting in a non-zero Lorentz force in the corona. This Lorentz tbrce then pushes the coronal plasma and might facilitate the magnetic reconnection required for flares. Also, the evolution of the net current is found to follow the evolution of magnetic shear at the polarity inversion line. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present G-band and Ca ii H filtergrams of two sunspot light bridges in NOAA AR 10953 taken from the 50-cm Solar Optical Telescope onboard the Japanese space satellite Hinode on 1 May 2007. The two light bridges differ in structure, with one of them resembling the filamentary penumbra and the other possessing a dark central lane running along the axis of the bridge having a width of 170 km, which is close to the diffraction limit of the telescope. Velocity measurements of the light bridges using proper motion displacements of inhomogeneities, averaged over the entire time series, show a nonuniform flow with velocities peaking at 250 and 180 m s−1 for the two bridges, respectively. We report observations of an archlike structure over one of the light bridges in the Ca images. Brightness enhancements are seen traveling along this arch as well as along the light bridge. Observations suggest that these enhancements over light bridges could possibly be a signature of lower chromospheric heating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-resolution MDI magnetograms are used to study the pattern of moving magnetic inhomogeneities in sunspots. We examine the inward and outward moving features in sunspots. The velocity of these features is small in the umbra while it is about 0.5 km s-1 in the outer penumbra. The inward and outward moving features may be the possible origin for the long-term fluctuations of magnetic field strength in sunspots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We employ high-resolution filtergrams and polarimetric measurements from Hinode to follow the evolution of a sunspot for eight days starting on 2007 June 28. The imaging data were corrected for intensity gradients, projection effects, and instrumental stray light prior to the analysis. The observations show the formation of a light bridge at one corner of the sunspot by a slow intrusion of neighboring penumbral filaments. This divided the umbra into two individual umbral cores. During the light bridge formation, there was a steep increase in its intensity from 0.28 to 0.7 IQS in nearly 4 hr, followed by a gradual increase to quiet-Sun (QS) values in 13 hr. This increase in intensity was accompanied by a large reduction in the field strength from 1800 G to 300 G. The smaller umbral core gradually broke away from the parent sunspot nearly two days after the formation of the light bridge, rendering the parent spot without a penumbra at the location of fragmentation. The penumbra in the fragment disappeared first within 34 hr, followed by the fragment whose area decayed exponentially with a time constant of 22 hr. In comparison, the parent sunspot area followed a linear decay rate of 0.94 Mm2 hr–1. The depleted penumbra in the parent sunspot regenerated when the inclination of the magnetic field at the penumbra-QS boundary became within 40° from being completely horizontal and this occurred near the end of the fragment's lifetime. After the disappearance of the fragment, another light bridge formed in the parent which had similar properties as the fragmenting one, but did not divide the sunspot. The significant weakening in field strength in the light bridge along with the presence of granulation is suggestive of strong convection in the sunspot, which might have triggered the expulsion and fragmentation of the smaller spot. Although the presence of QS photospheric conditions in sunspot umbrae could be a necessary condition for fragmentation, it is not a sufficient one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]