Chromospheric Magnetic Reconnection Research Articles

Nature of the energy source powering solar coronal loops driven by nanoflares

Context. Magnetic energy is required to heat the corona, the outer atmosphere of the Sun, to millions of degrees. Aims. We study the nature of the magnetic energy source that is probably responsible for the brightening of coronal loops driven by nanoflares in the cores of solar active regions. Methods. We consider observations of two active regions (ARs), 11890 and 12234, in which nanoflares have been detected. To this end, we use ultraviolet (UV) and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) images from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) for coronal loop diagnostics. These images are combined with the co-temporal line-of-sight magnetic field maps from the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) onboard SDO to investigate the connection between coronal loops and their magnetic roots in the photosphere. Results. The core of these ARs exhibit loop brightening in multiple EUV channels of AIA, particularly in its 9.4 nm filter. The HMI magnetic field maps reveal the presence of a complex mixed polarity magnetic field distribution at the base of these loops. We detect the cancellation of photospheric magnetic flux at these locations at a rate of about 1015 Mx s−1. The associated compact coronal brightenings directly above the cancelling magnetic features are indicative of plasma heating due to chromospheric magnetic reconnection. Conclusions. We suggest that the complex magnetic topology and the evolution of magnetic field, such as flux cancellation in the photosphere and the resulting chromospheric reconnection, can play an important role in energizing active region coronal loops driven by nanoflares. Our estimate of magnetic energy release during flux cancellation in the quiet Sun suggests that chromospheric reconnection can also power the quiet corona.

Effect of Radiation on Chromospheric Magnetic Reconnection: Reactive and Collisional Multi-fluid Simulations

Abstract We study magnetic reconnection under chromospheric conditions in five different ionization levels from 0.5% to 50% using a self-consistent two-fluid (ions + neutrals) model that accounts for compressibility, collisional effects, chemical inequilibrium, and anisotropic heat conduction. Results with and without radiation are compared, using two models for the radiative losses: an optically thin radiation loss function, and an approximation of the radiative losses of a plasma with photospheric abundances. The results without radiation show that reconnection occurs faster for the weakly ionized cases as a result of the effect of ambipolar diffusion and fast recombination. The tearing mode instability appears earlier in the low ionized cases and grows rapidly. We find that radiative losses have a stronger effect than was found in previous results as the cooling changes the plasma pressure and the concentration of ions inside the current sheet. This affects the ambipolar diffusion and the chemical equilibrium, resulting in thin current sheets and enhanced reconnection. The results quantify this complex nonlinear interaction by showing that a strong cooling produces faster reconnections than have been found in models without radiation. The results accounting for radiation show timescales and outflows comparable to spicules and chromospheric jets.

Magnetic reconnection in a weakly ionized plasma

Magnetic reconnection in partially ionized plasmas is a ubiquitous phenomenon spanning the range from laboratory to intergalactic scales, yet it remains poorly understood and relatively little studied. Here, we present results from a self-consistent multi-fluid simulation of magnetic reconnection in a weakly ionized reacting plasma with a particular focus on the parameter regime of the solar chromosphere. The numerical model includes collisional transport, interaction and reactions between the species, and optically thin radiative losses. This model improves upon our previous work in Leake et al. [“Multi-fluid simulations of chromospheric magnetic reconnection in a weakly ionized reacting plasma,” Astrophys. J. 760, 109 (2012)] by considering realistic chromospheric transport coefficients, and by solving a generalized Ohm's law that accounts for finite ion-inertia and electron-neutral drag. We find that during the two dimensional reconnection of a Harris current sheet with an initial width larger than the neutral-ion collisional coupling scale, the current sheet thins until its width becomes less than this coupling scale, and the neutral and ion fluids decouple upstream from the reconnection site. During this process of decoupling, we observe reconnection faster than the single-fluid Sweet-Parker prediction, with recombination and plasma outflow both playing a role in determining the reconnection rate. As the current sheet thins further and elongates, it becomes unstable to the secondary tearing instability, and plasmoids are seen. The reconnection rate, outflows, and plasmoids observed in this simulation provide evidence that magnetic reconnection in the chromosphere could be responsible for jet-like transient phenomena such as spicules and chromospheric jets.

MULTI-FLUID SIMULATIONS OF CHROMOSPHERIC MAGNETIC RECONNECTION IN A WEAKLY IONIZED REACTING PLASMA

We present results from the first self-consistent multi-fluid simulations of chromospheric magnetic reconnection in a weakly ionized reacting plasma. We simulate two dimensional magnetic reconnection in a Harris current sheet with a numerical model which includes ion-neutral scattering collisions, ionization, recombination, optically thin radiative loss, collisional heating, and thermal conduction. In the resulting tearing mode reconnection the neutral and ion fluids become decoupled upstream from the reconnection site, creating an excess of ions in the reconnection region and therefore an ionization imbalance. Ion recombination in the reconnection region, combined with Alfv\'{e}nic outflows, quickly removes ions from the reconnection site, leading to a fast reconnection rate independent of Lundquist number. In addition to allowing fast reconnection, we find that these non-equilibria partial ionization effects lead to the onset of the nonlinear secondary tearing instability at lower values of the Lundquist number than has been found in fully ionized plasmas.These simulations provide evidence that magnetic reconnection in the chromosphere could be responsible for jet-like transient phenomena such as spicules and chromospheric jets.

Chromospheric anemone jets and magnetic reconnection in partially ionized solar atmosphere

The solar optical telescope onboard Hinode with temporal resolution of less than 5 s and spatial resolution of 150 km has observed the lower solar atmosphere with an unprecedented detail. This has led to many important findings, one of them is the discovery of chromospheric anemone jets in the solar chromosphere. The chromospheric anemone jets are ubiquitous in solar chromosphere and statistical studies show that the typical length, life time and energy of the chromospheric anemone jets are much smaller than the coronal events (e.g., jets/flares/CMEs). Among various observational parameters, the apparent length and maximum velocity shows good correlation. The velocity of chromospheric anemone jets is comparable to the local Alfvén speed in the lower solar chromosphere. Since the discovery of chromospheric anemone jets by Hinode, several evidences of magnetic reconnection in chromospheric anemone jets have been found and these observations are summarized in this paper. These observations clearly suggest that reconnection occurs quite rapidly as well as intermittently in the solar chromosphere. In the solar corona (λi > δSP), anomalous resistivity arises due to various collisionless processes. Previous MHD simulations show that reconnection becomes fast as well as strongly time-dependent due to anomalous resistivity. Such processes would not arise in the solar chromosphere which is fully collisional and partially-ionized. So, it is unclear how the rapid and strongly time-dependent reconnection would occur in the solar chromosphere. It is quite likely that the Hall and ambipolar diffusion are present in the solar chromosphere and they could play an important role in driving such rapid, strongly time-dependent reconnection in the solar chromosphere.

Chromospheric magnetic reconnection caused by photospheric flux emergence: implications for jet-like events formation

Magnetic reconnection in the low atmosphere, e.g. chromosphere, is investigated in various physical environments. Its implications for the origination of explosive events (small--scale jets) are discussed. A 2.5-dimensional resistive magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model in Cartesian coordinates is used. It is found that the temperature and velocity of the outflow jets as a result of magnetic reconnection are strongly dependent on the physical environments, e.g. the magnitude of the magnetic field strength and the plasma density. If the magnetic field strength is weak and the density is high, the temperature of the jets is very low (~10,000 K) as well as its velocity (~40 km/s). However, if environments with stronger magnetic field strength (20 G) and smaller density (electron density Ne=2x10^{10} cm^{-3}) are considered, the outflow jets reach higher temperatures of up to 600,000 K and a line-of-sight velocity of up to 130 km/s which is comparable with the observational values of jet-like events.

NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS OF CHROMOSPHERIC MICROFLARES

With gravity, ionization, and radiation being considered, we perform 2.5D compressible resistive MHD simulations of chromospheric magnetic reconnection using the CIP-MOCCT scheme. The temperature distribution of the quiet-Sun atmospheric model VALC and the helium abundance (10%) are adopted. Our 2.5D MHD simulation reproduces qualitatively the temperature enhancement observed in chromospheric microflares. The temperature enhancement $\Delta T$ is demonstrated to be sensitive to the background magnetic field, whereas the total evolution time $\Delta t$ is sensitive to the magnitude of the anomalous resistivity. Moveover, we found a scaling law, which is described as $\Delta T/\Delta t \sim {n_H}^{-1.5} B^{2.1} {\eta_0}^{0.88}$. Our results also indicate that the velocity of the upward jet is much greater than that of the downward jet and the X-point may move up or down.

Chromospheric magnetic reconnection: two-fluid simulations of coalescing current loops

Aims: To investigate magnetic reconnection rates during the coalescence of two current loops in the solar chromosphere, by altering the neutral-hydrogen to proton density ratio, ioniziation/recombination coefficients, collision frequency and relative helicity of the loops. Methods: 2.5D numerical simulations of the chromosphere were conducted using a newly developed two-fluid (ion-neutral) numerical code. Developed from the Artificial Wind scheme, the numerical code includes the effects of ion-neutral collisions, ionization/recombination, thermal/resistive diffusivity and collisional/resistive heating. Results: It was found that the rates of magnetic reconnection strongly depend on the neutral-hydrogen to proton density ratio; increasing the density ratio by a thousand-fold decreased the rate of magnetic reconnection by twenty-fold. This result implies that magnetic reconnection proceeds significantly faster in the upper chromosphere, where the density of ions (protons) and neutral-hydrogen is comparable, than in the lower chromosphere where the density of neutral-hydrogen is over a thousand times the ion density. The inclusion of ionization/recombination, an important physics effect in the chromosphere, increases the total reconnected magnetic flux, but does not alter the rate of magnetic reconnection. Reductions in the ion-neutral collision frequency, result in small increases to the rates of magnetic reconnection. The relative helicity of the two current loops was not observed to have any significant effect on the rates of magnetic reconnection. Conclusions: The magnetic reconnection rates of coalescing current loops are strongly affected by the inclusion of neutral-hydrogen particles.

Spectrophotometric analysis of Ellerman bombs in the Ca II, H$\mathsf{\alpha}$, and UV range

Context. Even if Ellerman bombs have been observed in the Hα line within emerging magnetic flux regions since the early 20th century, their origin and the mechanisms that lead to their formation have been strongly debated. Recently, new arguments in favor of chromospheric magnetic reconnection have been advanced. Ellerman bombs seem to be the signature of reconnections that take place during the emergence of the magnetic field.Aims. We have observed an active region presenting emergence of magnetic flux. We detected and studied Ellerman bombs in two chromospheric lines: Ca ii 8542 A and Hα . We investigated the link between Ellerman bombs and other structures and phenomena appearing in an emerging active region: UV bright points, arch filament systems, and magnetic topology.Methods. On August 3, 2004, we performed multi-wavelength observations of the active region NOAA 10655. This active region was the target of SoHO Joint Observation Program 157. Both SoHO/MDI and TRACE (195 A and 1600 A) were used. Simultaneously, we observed in the Ca ii and Na D1 lines with the spectro-imager MSDP mode of THEMIS. Alternately to the MSDP, we used the MTR spectropolarimeter on THEMIS to observe in Hα and in the Fe i doublet at 6302 A. We derived the magnetic field vectors around some Ellerman bombs.Results. We present the first images of EBs in the Ca ii line and confirm that Ellerman bombs can indeed be observed in the Ca ii line, presenting the same “moustache” geometry profiles as in the Hα line, but with a narrower central absorption in the Ca ii line, in which the peaks of emission are around ± 0.35 A. We noticed that the Ellerman bombs observed in the wings of Ca ii line have an elongated shape – the length about 50% greater than the width. We derived mean semi-axis lengths of 1.4'' 2.0'' . In the UV time profiles of the Ellerman bombs, we noticed successive enhanced emissions. The distribution of lifetimes of these individual impulses presents a strong mode around 210 s. Study of the magnetic topology shows that 9 out of the 13 EBs are located on the inversion line of the longitudinal field and that some typical examples might be associated with a bald patch topology.Conclusions. We provide new arguments in favor of the reconnection origin of Ellerman bombs. The different individual impulses observed in UV may be related to a bursty mode of reconnection. We also show that this Ca ii 8542 A chromospheric line is a good indicator of Ellerman bombs and can bring new information about these phenomena.

SMALL-SCALE Hα DYNAMIC FEATURES SUPPORTED BY CHROMO SPHERIC MAGNETIC RECONNECTION

In the present study, we have investigated morphology and evolution of small-scale Ha dynamic features on the quiet sun by analyzing video magnetograms and high resolution Ha images simultaneously taken for 5 hours at Big Bear Solar Observatory on April 18, 1997. From comparisons between time sequential longitudinal magnetograms and H images covering , several small-scale H dynamic features have been observed at a site of magnetic flux cancellation. A close relationship between such features and cancelling magnetic fluxes has been revealed temporarily and spatially. Our results support that material injection by chromospheric magnetic reconnect ion may be essential in supporting numerous small-scale H dynamical absorption features, being in line with recent observational studies showing that material injection by chromospheric magnetic reconnect ion is essential for the formation of solar filaments.

OBSERVATIONAL TESTS OF CHROMOSPHERIC MAGNETIC RECONNECTION

Observations have indicated that magnetic reconnect ion may occur frequently in the photosphere and chromosphere as well as in the solar corona. The observed features include cancelling magnetic features seen in photospheric magnetograms, and different kinds of small-scale activities such as UV explosive events and EUV jets. By integrating the observed parameters of these features with the Sweet-Parker reconnect ion theory, an attempt is made to clarify the nature of chromospheric magnetic reconnection. Our results suggest that magnetic reconnect ion may be occurring at many different levels of the photosphere and chromosphere without a preferred height and at a faster speed than is predicted by the Sweet-Parker reconnect ion model using the classical value of electric conductivity. Introducing an anomalous magnetic diffusivity 10-100 times the classical value is one of the possible ways of explaining the fast reconnect ion as inferred from observations.

Coronal Heating: Energy Release Associated with Chromospheric Magnetic Reconnection

We examine a one-dimensional circularly symmetric supergranulation reconnection model with typical quiet-Sun values. In this model, the assumed source rate of elements determines heating, because all emerged elements eventually annihilate; the assumed collision cross section determines mean field—the more efficient the interaction, the fewer elements exist at any time; and the effective element diffusivity determines the ratio of field strengths in the network and cell interior. Power-law indices for the variation of the heating flux with the mean magnetic field were computed in order to allow comparisons to observations. The indices are found to be in the range 1.9-2.0, and the only parameter that was found to have much effect on them was the effective element diffusivity, where the index declines roughly logarithmically with decreasing diffusivity. Even this effect is fairly shallow, however; a tenfold reduction in diffusivity only lowers the power-law index from 1.9 to 1.7.

Chromospheric Magnetic Reconnection and its Implication for Coronal Heating

According to recent data analyses, the relationship between the coronal energy flux density and the photospheric magnetic flux density is approximately power law; estimates of the exponent tend to be noninteger and fall in the range 1-2. The index is closer to 2 for quiet regions and closer to 1 for active regions. We here examine this relationship on the basis of a recent model of coronal heating. We assume that the coronal energy flux is derived from reconnection of neighboring flux tubes at the level of the chromosphere, and we examine the rate at which such reconnection would occur in terms of a simple kinetic-theory model. In this model, flux elements appear randomly within supergranulation cells, are carried into the network according to a prescribed velocity field, and cancel in the network due to "collisions" between elements of opposite polarity. For any limited range of magnetic flux density, the relationship is approximately power law. We find that the power-law index is in the range 1-2: for weak fields it is close to 2, and for strong fields it is close to 1, in agreement with available evidence.

Chromospheric Magnetic Reconnection and Its Possible Relationship to Coronal Heating

Coronal heating is clearly related to the coronal magnetic —eld. This may be due to a passive role of the magnetic —eld in modifying wave propagation and dissipation or to an active role resulting from the liberation of magnetic energy by reconnection or in some other way. The purpose of this article is to examine the consequences of reconnection at the chromospheric level rather than in the corona. We note that the chromosphere is indeed a favorable site for reconnection to occur, since the resistivity is greatest in that regionspeci—cally at the temperature-minimum location. Chromospheric reconnection can lead to coronal heating by Joule heating, by the generation and subsequent dissipation of high-frequency and magnetacoustic waves, or by the response of the coronal magnetic —eld to a sudden change Alfvec n in connectivity. The second process could also contribute to heating of the solar wind, since high- frequency waves can be absorbed by cyclotron damping. We note also that chromospheric recon- Alfvec n nection could inject sufficient chromospheric gas into the corona to balance the known steady down—ow of coronal gas through the transition region. It is also possible that chromospheric reconnection plays a role in the —rst ionization potential eUect. Subject headings: MHDSun: coronaSun: magnetic —elds