Quasi full-disk maps of solar horizontal velocities using SDO/HMI data

¹ Université de Toulouse, UPS-OMP, IRAP, Toulouse, France
e-mail: thierry.roudier@irap.omp.eu
² CNRS, IRAP, 14 avenue Edouard Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France
³ LESIA, Observatoire de Paris, Section de Meudon, 92195 Meudon, France
⁴ CALMIP, DTSI Université Paul Sabatier, Université de Toulouse 31062 Toulouse, France
⁵ Lockheed Martin Advance Technology Center, Palo Alto, CA, USA
⁶ Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung, Max-Planck-Strasse 2, 37191 Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany
⁷ Institut für Astrophysik, Georg-August Universität Göttingen, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
⁸ Astronomical Institute, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (v. v. i.), Fričova 298, 25165 Ondřejov, Czech Republic
⁹ Astronomical Institute, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University in Prague, V Holešovičkách 2, 18000 Prague 8, Czech Republic

Received: 19 December 2011
Accepted: 18 February 2012

Abstract

Aims. For the first time, the motion of granules (solar plasma on the surface on scales larger than 2.5 Mm) has been followed over the entire visible surface of the Sun, using SDO/HMI white-light data.

Methods. Horizontal velocity fields are derived from image correlation tracking using a new version of the coherent structure tracking algorithm. The spatial and temporal resolutions of the horizontal velocity map are 2.5 Mm and 30 min, respectively.

Results. From this reconstruction, using the multi-resolution analysis, one can obtain to the velocity field at different scales with its derivatives such as the horizontal divergence or the vertical component of the vorticity. The intrinsic error on the velocity is  ~0.25 km s^-1 for a time sequence of 30 min and a mesh size of 2.5 Mm. This is acceptable compared to the granule velocities, which range between 0.3 km s^-1 and 1.8 km s^-1. A high correlation between velocities computed from Hinode and SDO/HMI has been found (85%). From the data we derive the power spectrum of the supergranulation horizontal velocity field, the solar differential rotation, and the meridional velocity.