High-spatial Resolution Observations of a Small -spot

The Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) has a long tradition of are observations. In this letter, we would like to direct the reader's attention to observations of a small-spot which produced a moderate are activity characterized by 18 C-class and 2 M-class ares. Active region NOAA 8076 (BBSO 3877) was one of the rst active regions in the new Solar Cycle No. 23. We present high spatial resolution white-light observations obtained on August 31st, 1997 with the speckle masking technique (Weigelt 1977; Weigelt & Wirnitzer1983; Lohmann et al. 1983). Almost diiraction limited speckle reconstructions revealed the complex and highly dynamical behavior of a small emerging-connguration in the central part of NOAA 8076. We found strong shear ows and indications of strong transverse elds in the small-spot. The are-producing mechanism for this small activity complex was very similar to that of the outstanding are-producing region NOAA 5395 of March 1989 (Wang et al. 1991), however, on a completely opposite spatial scale. As a by-product, the speckle interferometric techniques provided information about the seeing quality at a site. We used von der L uhe's (1984) spectral ratio technique to estimate the Fried-parameter r0. We measured a Fried-parameter of r0 = 9:0 0:7 cm and a maximum Fried-parameter of r max 0 = 10:3 cm indicating good seeing conditions during our observations.