MULTI-WAVELENGTH OBSERVATIONS OF A SUBARCSECOND PENUMBRAL TRANSIENT BRIGHTENING EVENT

Abstract

ABSTRACT We report a subarcsecond penumbral transient brightening event with the high-spatial resolution observations from the 1.6 m New Solar Telescope (NST), Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS), and the Solar Dynamics Observatory. The transient brightening, whose thermal energy is in the range of nanoflares, has signatures in the chromosphere, the transient region, and the corona. NST's Hα channel reveals the fine structure of the event with a width as narrow as 101 km (0.″14), which is much smaller than the width from the previous observation. The transient brightening lasts for about 3 minutes. It is associated with a redshift of about 17 km s−1, found in the Si iv 1402.77 Å line and exhibits an inward motion to the umbra with a speed of 87 km s−1. The small-scale energy released from the event has a multi-temperature component. Spectral analysis of the brightening region from IRIS shows that not only the transition region lines such as Si iv 1402.77 Å and C ii 1334.53 Å, but also the chromospheric Mg ii k 2796.35 Å line are significantly enhanced and broadened. In addition, the event can be found in all the extreme-ultraviolet passbands of the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly and the derived differential emission measure profile increases between 4 and 15 MK (or 6.6 ≤ log T ≤ 7.2) in the transient brightening phase. It is possible that the penumbral transient brightening event is caused by magnetic reconnection.