Authors: Maria D. Kazachenko (1-3), Benoit Tremblay (4) and the Flow ISSI team

Accurate measurements of photospheric plasma flows are essential for understanding the transport of magnetic flux and energy through the solar atmosphere. We quantify the quality of quiet-Sun plasma-flow reconstruction using MURaM simulations as ground truth. We degrade synthetic observations in space and time to mimic a range of observational cadences and spatial resolutions. We then apply several commonly used techniques, including DAVE4VM and FLCT-based methods, to infer horizontal plasma flows.

We evaluate the reconstructed velocity fields and derived Poynting fluxes using correlation- and vector-based metrics across multiple optical and geometrical heights. We investigate how reconstruction quality depends on observational cadence, spatial resolution, atmospheric height, inversion method, and local magnetic and intensity environments. The analysis spans a broad range of observing conditions representative of current and future solar facilities and is intended to inform the interpretation of flow measurements and the optimization of observing strategies for next-generation instruments.