Imaging Spectroscopy of Sunspots using IBIS

We use the Interferometric BIdimensional Spectrometer (IBIS) of the INAF/Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory and installed at the National Solar Observatory (NSO) Dunn Solar Telescope, to understand the structure of sunspots. These high resolution observations were acquired on 2004 July 30-31, of active region NOAA 10654, using the high order NSO adaptive optics system. We map the spatio-temporal variation of the penumbral Doppler signatures in three spectral lines, FeI 6301.5\AA, FeII 7224.4\AA, and CaII 8542.6\AA, from the photosphere to the chromosphere. From a 70-minute temporal average of individual 32-second cadence Doppler observations we find that the averaged velocities decrease with height, about 3.5 times larger in the deeper photosphere (FeII 7224.4\AA; height-of-formation $\approx$\50 km) than in the upper photosphere FeI 6301.5\AA; height-of-formation $\approx$\350 km), There is a remarkable coherence of Doppler signals over the height difference of 300 km. From a highspeed animation of the Doppler sequence we find evidence for what appears to be ejection of high speed gas concentrations from edges of penumbral filaments into the surrounding granular photosphere. The Evershed flow persists a few arcseconds beyond the traditionally demarcated penumbra-granulation boundary. We present these and other results and discuss the implications of these measurements for sunspot models