Four different reconnection brightenings

Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope

This image shows time sequences for 4 different examples of reconnection brightenings in the solar atmosphere.

In the top row, we see a number of brightenings known as Ellerman bombs. These are brightenings in the H-alpha line that are associated with magnetic reconnection processes related with magnetic flux emergence in active regions. The observations were taken on July 4, 2013 and the target was active region 11778.

The lower three rows show examples of similar brightenings in the H-alpha line in quiet areas (far) away from active regions. These are much smaller and shorter-lived than Ellerman bombs in active regions. They are called quiet-Sun Ellerman-like brightenings (QSEBs). QSEBs mark magnetic reconnection processes in the quiet Sun.

Image credit (top row): Luc Rouppe van der Voort, Gregal Vissers, Ainar Drews (ITA, University of Oslo)

Image credit (lower rows): Luc Rouppe van der Voort, Tiago Pereira (ITA, University of Oslo)

Publication: Rouppe van der Voort et al, 2016, A&A, 592, A100

Movies of this figure can be found HERE