Observational evidence for small-scale mixture of weak and strong fields in the quiet Sun

Three different maps of the quiet Sun, observed with the Advanced Stokes Polarimeter (ASP) and the Diffraction-Limited Stokes Polarimeter (DLSP), show evidence of strong (similar or equal to1700 G) and weak (<500 G) fields coexisting within the resolution element at both network and internetwork locations. The angular resolution of the observations is of 1 '' (ASP) and 0.'' 6 (DLSP). Even at the higher DLSP resolution, a significant fraction of the network magnetic patches harbor a mixture of strong and weak fields. Internetwork elements that exhibit kG fields when analyzed with a single-component atmosphere are also shown to harbor considerable amounts of weak fields. Only those patches for which a single-component analysis yields weak fields do not show this mixture of field strengths. Finally, there is a larger fractional area of weak fields in the convective upflows than in the downflows.