Letter to the Editor

Magnetic flux in the internetwork quiet Sun

¹ Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, 38205 C/ vía Láctea, s/n, Tenerife, Spain
² Main Astronomical Observatory, NAS, 03680 Kyiv, Zabolotnogo Str. 27, Ukraine e-mail: khomenko@iac.es
³ Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung, 37191 Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany 

⁴ Kiepenheuer-Institut für Sonnenphysik, 79104 Freiburg, Germany

Received: 1 March 2005
Accepted: 26 April 2005

Abstract

We report a direct comparison of the amplitudes of Stokes spectra of the Fe i 630 nm and 1.56 μm lines produced by realistic MHD simulations with simultaneous observations in the same spectral regions. The Stokes spectra were synthesized in snapshots with a mixed polarity magnetic field having a spatially averaged strength, , between 10 and 30 G. The distribution of Stokes V amplitudes depends sensitively on . A quiet inter-network region was observed at the German VTT simultaneously with TIP (1.56 μm) and POLIS (630 nm). We find that the Stokes V amplitudes of both infrared and visible observations are best reproduced by the simulation snapshot with  G. In observations with 1 resolution, up to 2/3 of the magnetic flux can remain undetected.