Magnetic Reconnection in the Solar Atmosphere Observed by Hinode

Abstract

One of the most famous rapid energy conversion mechanisms in space is a magnetic reconnection. The general concept of a magnetic reconnection is that the rapid energy conversion from magnetic field energy to thermal energy, kinetic energy or non-thermal particle energy. The understanding of rapid energy conversion rates from magnetic field energy to other energy is the fundamental and essential problem in the space physics. One of the important goals for studying magnetic reconnection is to answer what plasma condition/parameter controls the energy conversion rates. Recently, solar atmosphere has been focused as a space laboratory for magnetic reconnection because of its variety in plasma condition. So far considerable effort has been devoted toward understanding the energy conversion rates of magnetic reconnection, and various typical features associated with magnetic reconnection have been observed in the solar atmosphere with the modern spacecraft/ground base telescopes. In this chapter, we first introduce the variety of plasma condition/parameter in solar atmosphere. Later, we discuss what we can learn about a magnetic reconnection from the Hinode observation.