Observation of magnetic reconnection driven by granular scale advection

Zhicheng Zeng, Wenda Cao, Haisheng Ji

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

We report the first evidence of magnetic reconnection driven by advection in a rapidly developing large granule using high spatial resolution observations of a small surge event (base size ∼ 4″ × 4″) with the 1.6 m aperture New Solar Telescope at the Big Bear Solar Observatory. The observations were carried out in narrowband (0.5 Å) He I 10830 Å and broadband (10 Å) TiO 7057 Å. Since He I 10830 Å triplet has a very high excitation level and is optically thin, its filtergrams enable us to investigate the surge from the photosphere through the chromosphere into the lower corona. Simultaneous space data from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly and Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory were used in the analysis. It is shown that the surge is spatio-temporally associated with magnetic flux emergence in the rapidly developing large granule. During the development of the granule, its advecting flow (∼2 km s-1) squeezed the magnetic flux into an intergranular lane area, where a magnetic flux concentration was formed and the neighboring flux with opposite magnetic polarity was canceled. During the cancellation, the surge was produced as absorption in He I 10830 Å filtergrams while simultaneous EUV brightening occurred at its base. The observations clearly indicate evidence of a finest-scale reconnection process driven by the granule's motion.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article numberL33
JournalAstrophysical Journal Letters
Volume769
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 1 2013

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

Keywords

  • Sun: activity
  • Sun: chromosphere
  • Sun: photosphere

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Observation of magnetic reconnection driven by granular scale advection'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this