Structure of a facular region from the inversion of high spatial and temporal resolution stokes spectra

A recently developed inversion technique is applied to high spatial and temporal resolution Stokes profiles of a map recorded with the Advanced Stokes Polarimeter in order to investigate the spatial distribution of the properties of solar magnetic elements belonging to a facular region near disk center. The thin flux tube approximation is adopted in an attempt to describe the structure of these elements. The inversion code retrieves, in a self-consistent manner, the thermal, magnetic and dynamic parameters determining the internal and external atmospheres of the flux tubes. We find that the atmospheres resulting from individual pixels show very similar structures despite the large differences between their emergent Stokes I and V spectra. Within the facular region analyzed, there exist smooth pixel-to-pixel variations of the physical parameters which are highly suggestive of a well defined large-scale organization. No significant correlations between the magnetic field and filling factor or bet between the internal temperature and magnetic field are observed. According to our results, the facula seems to be composed of individual tubes sharing the same properties, the only significant difference being the filling factor. At z = 0 km, the average magnetic field and filling factor turn out to be 1460 G and 0.27, respectively.