Center to limb variation of penumbral Stokes V profiles

We investigated the horizontal and the vertical component of the Evershed flow (EF). To this end, we computed average Stokes V profiles for various velocity classes in penumbrae at different heliocentric angles. Our results show that for blueshifted profiles an additional lobe with the same polarity as the spot is present in the blue side of the average Stokes V profile. The amplitude of the additional lobe grows with increasing blueshift and with increasing heliocentric angle. For small redshifts, the profiles show an additional lobe with the opposite polarity as the spot on the red side of the average Stokes V profile. Even at disk center, the original polarity of the average Stokes V profile is reversed for strong redshifts. The transition between the different types of Stokes V profiles is continuous and indicates that not only the vertical, but also the horizontal EF is a magnetized stream of plasma in a magnetic background field. (C) 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim