Photospheric modeling through spectral line inversion

Aims.We aim to determine average radial stratifications of various physical parameters throughout the solar photosphere at high angular resolution for non-magnetic and magnetic areas and to compare these with standard semiempirical 1D modeling and with 3D hydrodynamics (HD) and magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) simulations. Methods.We analyse a 15-min sequence of adaptive-optics spectrograms of very high angular resolution taken at solar disk centre. We split the data between a quiet area and a magnetic one and derive mean temperature and velocity stratifications and fluctuations for these separately by applying LTE inversion based on response functions. Results.The mean temperature stratifications in the non-magnetic region agree well with the classical 1D models and the 3D simulations at all heights. However, the observed rms temperature is much lower than in the simulations, the observed mean velocities indicate more upflows, and the observed velocity fluctuations are smaller except in upper layers. Some of the discrepancies are likely to result from remaining smearing by atmospheric seeing and instrumental limitations. The magnetic area shows conspicuous behaviour at large height. We also find evidence of fast low-photosphere downflows in the magnetic area and of enhanced temperature above a small pore