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Frequently Occurring Reconnection Jets from Sunspot Light Bridges.

Authors :
Hui Tian
Vasyl Yurchyshyn
Hardi Peter
Sami K. Solanki
Peter R. Young
Lei Ni
Wenda Cao
Kaifan Ji
Yingjie Zhu
Jingwen Zhang
Tanmoy Samanta
Yongliang Song
Jiansen He
Linghua Wang
Yajie Chen
Source :
Astrophysical Journal; 2/20/2018, Vol. 854 Issue 2, p1-1, 1p
Publication Year :
2018

Abstract

Solid evidence of magnetic reconnection is rarely reported within sunspots, the darkest regions with the strongest magnetic fields and lowest temperatures in the solar atmosphere. Using the world’s largest solar telescope, the 1.6 m Goode Solar Telescope, we detect prevalent reconnection through frequently occurring fine-scale jets in the Hα line wings at light bridges, the bright lanes that may divide the dark sunspot core into multiple parts. Many jets have an inverted Y-shape, shown by models to be typical of reconnection in a unipolar field environment. Simultaneous spectral imaging data from the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph show that the reconnection drives bidirectional flows up to 200 km s<superscript>−1</superscript>, and that the weakly ionized plasma is heated by at least an order of magnitude up to ∼80,000 K. Such highly dynamic reconnection jets and efficient heating should be properly accounted for in future modeling efforts of sunspots. Our observations also reveal that the surge-like activity previously reported above light bridges in some chromospheric passbands such as the Hα core has two components: the ever-present short surges likely to be related to the upward leakage of magnetoacoustic waves from the photosphere, and the occasionally occurring long and fast surges that are obviously caused by the intermittent reconnection jets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
0004637X
Volume :
854
Issue :
2
Database :
Complementary Index
Journal :
Astrophysical Journal
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
128188315
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aaa89d