THE EVOLUTION OF INTRANETWORK MAGNETIC ELEMENTS

We have studied the evolution of Intranetwork (IN) magnetic elements, using a particularly good series of very deep magnetograms obtained at Big Bear Solar Observatory. The magnetograms span an interval 10 hour s long and cover an area of 310 x 240 arcsec(2). We are able to follow 528 intranetwork elements from birth to death. The analysis reveals t he following results: (1). The appearance of IN elements can be classi fied into the following categories: half of the total IN elements emer ge as clusters of mixed polarities somewhere within the network cells, one fifth appear as ephemeral regions (tiny bipoles), one fifth resul t from the merging of several elements of a given polarity, and one te nth appear by fragmentation of larger elements. (2). IN elements disap pear in four ways: one third of total IN elements cancel with elements of opposite polarity, one third decay into weak fields without appare nt interaction with other elements, one fourth merge with IN or networ k elements of the same polarity, and one tenth split into smaller IN e lements below detecting limit. (3). About one ninth (one sixth) of the IN elements merge (cancel) with network features, consequently, part of the flux in network features is built up from former IN magnetic fl ux, and part is eliminated by IN elements. The net effect of merging a nd cancellation is a gradual reduction of the total flux of network el ements in the 10 hours observational interval. It seems that not all t he network magnetic flux is the remnant of active region magnetic flux .