Flux tubes and the solar magnetic field spectrum

Improved spatial resolution of solar surface magnetograms makes the study of the solar surface magnetic field spectrum (i.e., of the two-dimensional Fourier transform of the two-point correlation function of the field) an increasingly promising possibility. We explain how the spectrum can be calculated from flux-tube models and discuss in detail the nature of the information about the spatial and size distribution of the flux tubes that may be extracted from the observed spectrum. On the basis of a number of plausible assumptions, specific predictions of the spectrum can be obtained from existing models