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We present diffraction-limited observations of magnetic flux concentrations and penumbral and umbral fine structure within an active region observed at disk center. We recorded G-band images, magnetograms, Dopplergrams, and narrowband filtergrams, using the Universal Birefringent Filter (UBF) at the Dunn Solar Telescope (DST). The National Solar Observatory (NSO) adaptive optics system at the DST was used to achieve diffraction-limited long-exposure imaging with a high signal-to-noise ratio. The main results can be summarized as follows: Strong and spatially narrow downflows are observed at the edge of magnetic structures, such as small flux concentrations (sometimes also referred to as flux tubes), pores, a light bridge, and the sunspot umbrae. For the particular sunspot observed, we find strong evidence for what appear to be vigorous, small-scale convection patterns in a light bridge. We observe extremely narrow (

We studied the magnetic and velocity fields of four pores situated close to the disk center and its surrounding regions. We find the following results from our analysis: The velocity inside the pore is very close to zero, whereas there is a strong and narrow downflow around the pore. The vertical velocity gradient observed at the edge of the pore is stronger than the velocity gradient seen in intergranular lanes. Immediately surrounding these narrow downflows, normal granular convection is observed. This observation is consistent with the theoretical picture of an isolated flux tube embedded in a quiet region surrounded by a downflow driven by radiative energy losses. Needle-like structures were seen around the pore, with the head of the needle showing an upflow. The needle tail ends in the downflow surrounding the pore. Assuming the flow is horizontal in the body of the needle, the needle-like structures would represent a possible signature of circular flow system surrounding the pore. The radial extent of this observed flow system (which likely feeds the downflow around the pore) is about 10''. A pore with relatively large fill fraction shows a small upflow in the center surrounded by the downflow, whereas a pore with small fill fraction shows downflows throughout the pore. The asymmetries of the observed Stokes V profiles and their temporal variations are studied. We find temporal variations of V-profile asymmetries observed within pores on timescales of 5 minutes.

The asymmetry of Stokes V profiles of the spectral lines λ6301.5 and λ6302.5 was utilized to systematically study a sunspot observed close to the disk center. The Stokes spectra were taken with the National Solar Observatory (NSO)/High Altitude Observatory Advanced Stokes Polarimeter (ASP). The NSO low-order adaptive optics system was used to record a data set of consistently high resolution. We find the following results from this analysis: (1) a strong correlation between the center-of-gravity (COG) velocity derived from the intensity profiles with the V-profile asymmetry; (2) the amplitude asymmetry is much more sensitive to changes in the COG velocity than the area asymmetry; and (3) plotting area versus amplitude asymmetry for the entire active region results in a bimodal distribution. Different areas within the active region, such as penumbra, umbra, light bridge, and small-scale fields outside the sunspot, are clearly separated in this plot. The light bridges and the small-scale magnetic fields surrounding the observed sunspot show larger amplitude asymmetry compared to the area asymmetry, whereas the penumbra shows larger area asymmetry. In comparison, the Stokes V spectra measured in the umbra show little area and amplitude asymmetry. In this paper, we use bisector analysis of the V intensity profile as a new tool to determine the gradients in the physical parameters in a more direct way. The gradients derived from the bisector method provide further and more direct evidence for the physical picture derived from the study of the asymmetries. For light bridges we find that the data is consistent with a picture of small convective cells confined to lower layers of the atmosphere. Asymmetries in the penumbra are caused by steep vertical gradients in the Evershed velocities in combination with the gradient in the line-of-sight inclination angle, confirming the earlier observations. For small-scale fields, the picture is consistent with the canopy effect. We also compare the average velocity and the magnetic field strength derived from this bisector analysis with the velocity and magnetic field strength derived from the ASP inversion and find excellent agreement between these independent methods. Apart from these asymmetries, we also observe extremely asymmetric V profiles, such as one-lobed profiles and multiple reversals, mostly at the edges of the limb-side penumbra. In these regions, we also find differences in the V profiles of λ6301.5 and λ6302.5 that suggest steep gradients in the physical parameters. The asymmetries derived from a single scan match well with the ones derived from the time-averaged properties obtained by averaging 14 such scans separated by 7.5 minutes. This suggests that, in a statistical sense, the Stokes V asymmetries do not vary with time and describe a global/general property of magnetic features found in regions such as light bridge, umbra, penumbra, and small-scale fields.