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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0The Astrophysical Journal

First Statistical Analysis of Photospheric Intensity Vortices with DKIST/VBI

  • T. Rees-Crockford1,2
  • E. Scullion1
  • J. A. McLaughlin1
  • Friedrich Wöger3
  1. 1Northumbria University
  2. 2Centre for Mathematical Plasma-Astrophysics
  3. 3National Solar Observatory
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Abstract

Using high-resolution ground-based Fe I (630.2 nm) data from SST/CRISP and TiO (705.8 nm) data from DKIST/VBI-Red in separate observing runs, we analyze photospheric intensity vortices. We identify these vortices using the Γ functions, deriving the velocity fields from Fourier local correlation tracking (FLCT) plane-of-sky flow vectors, and report their statistics. We perform the closest possible statistical comparison between instruments through the choice of FLCT kernel size σ and the Γ function search range S and find excellent agreement in macroscopic properties, such as diameters and lifetimes. We also study the role of S in the extracted statistics and the relationships between kinematic properties, finding no strong correlation between area and lifetime. We also find that VBI-Red is able to allow the meaningful extraction of the internal velocity structure of photospheric intensity vortices for the first time, via FLCT and the Γ functions, and present examples of nine case studies. In addition, we also find that VBI-Red is capable of detecting vortices below the resolution limit of SST after applying the same detection and tracking methodology to both datasets. We conclude that DKIST/VBI-Red enables the investigation of photospheric intensity vortices at previously unresolved spatial scales, with the ability to provide important new insights into the underpinning physics driving these structures.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{reescrockford2026first,
  title = {{First Statistical Analysis of Photospheric Intensity Vortices with DKIST/VBI}},
  author = {T. Rees-Crockford and E. Scullion and J. A. McLaughlin and Friedrich Wöger},
  journal = {The Astrophysical Journal},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.3847/1538-4357/aea843},
  url = {https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aea843},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - First Statistical Analysis of Photospheric Intensity Vortices with DKIST/VBI
AU  - T. Rees-Crockford
AU  - E. Scullion
AU  - J. A. McLaughlin
AU  - Friedrich Wöger
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/27
JO  - The Astrophysical Journal
DO  - 10.3847/1538-4357/aea843
UR  - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aea843
AB  - Using high-resolution ground-based Fe I (630.2 nm) data from SST/CRISP and TiO (705.8 nm) data from DKIST/VBI-Red in separate observing runs, we analyze photospheric intensity vortices. We identify these vortices using the Γ functions, deriving the velocity fields from Fourier local correlation tracking (FLCT) plane-of-sky flow vectors, and report their statistics. We perform the closest possible statistical comparison between instruments through the choice of FLCT kernel size σ and the Γ function search range S and find excellent agreement in macroscopic properties, such as diameters and lifetimes. We also study the role of S in the extracted statistics and the relationships between kinematic properties, finding no strong correlation between area and lifetime. We also find that VBI-Red is able to allow the meaningful extraction of the internal velocity structure of photospheric intensity vortices for the first time, via FLCT and the Γ functions, and present examples of nine case studies. In addition, we also find that VBI-Red is capable of detecting vortices below the resolution limit of SST after applying the same detection and tracking methodology to both datasets. We conclude that DKIST/VBI-Red enables the investigation of photospheric intensity vortices at previously unresolved spatial scales, with the ability to provide important new insights into the underpinning physics driving these structures.
SN  - 1538-4357
SN  - 0004-637X
ER  -