Observations of solar chromospheric heating at sub-arcsec spatial resolution

A wide variety of phenomena such as gentle but persistent brightening, dynamic slender features (∼100 km), and compact (∼1″) ultraviolet (UV) bursts are associated with the heating of the solar chromosphere. High spatio-temporal resolution is required to capture the finer details of the likely magne...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Astronomy and astrophysics (Berlin) 2018-09, Vol.617, p.A128
Main Authors: Smitha, H. N., Chitta, L. P., Wiegelmann, T., Solanki, S. K.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Brightening
Bursting
Bursts
Chromosphere
Evolution
Heating
Magnetic fields
magnetic reconnection
Mathematical morphology
Observatories
Solar activity
Solar atmosphere
Solar flares
Solar observatories
Spatial resolution
Spine
Substructures
Sun: atmosphere
Sun: chromosphere
Sun: magnetic fields
Sun: photosphere
Sunrise
Temporal resolution
Topology
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Summary:A wide variety of phenomena such as gentle but persistent brightening, dynamic slender features (∼100 km), and compact (∼1″) ultraviolet (UV) bursts are associated with the heating of the solar chromosphere. High spatio-temporal resolution is required to capture the finer details of the likely magnetic reconnection-driven, rapidly evolving bursts. Such observations are also needed to reveal their similarities to large-scale flares, which are also thought to be reconnection driven, and more generally their role in chromospheric heating. Here we report observations of chromospheric heating in the form of a UV burst obtained with the balloon-borne observatory SUNRISE. The observed burst displayed a spatial morphology similar to that of a large-scale solar flare with a circular ribbon. While the co-temporal UV observations at 1.5″ spatial resolution and 24 s cadence from the Solar Dynamics Observatory showed a compact brightening, the SUNRISE observations at diffraction-limited spatial resolution of 0.1″ at 7 s cadence revealed a dynamic substructure of the burst that it is composed of an extended ribbon-like feature and a rapidly evolving arcade of thin (∼0.1″) magnetic loop-like features, similar to post-flare loops. Such a dynamic substructure reveals the small-scale nature of chromospheric heating in these bursts. Furthermore, based on magnetic field extrapolations, this heating event is associated with a complex fan-spine magnetic topology. Our observations strongly hint at a unified picture of magnetic heating in the solar atmosphere from some large-scale flares to small-scale bursts, all associated with such a magnetic topology.
ISSN:0004-6361
1432-0746
DOI:10.1051/0004-6361/201833276