A RECONNECTING CURRENT SHEET IMAGED IN A SOLAR FLARE
- Space Weather Research Laboratory, Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research, NJIT, Newark, NJ 07102 (United States)
- Department of Physics, NJIT, Newark, NJ 07102 (United States)
- Catholic University of America and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
- Interferometrics, Inc. Herndon, VA 20171 (United States)
Magnetic reconnection changes the magnetic field topology and powers explosive events in astrophysical, space, and laboratory plasmas. For flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) in the solar atmosphere, the standard model predicts the presence of a reconnecting current sheet, which has been the subject of considerable theoretical and numerical modeling over the last 50 years, yet direct, unambiguous observational verification has been absent. In this Letter, we show a bright sheet structure of global length (>0.25 R {sub sun}) and macroscopic width ((5-10)x10{sup 3} km) distinctly above the cusp-shaped flaring loop, imaged during the flare rising phase in EUV. The sheet formed due to the stretch of a transequatorial loop system and was accompanied by various reconnection signatures. This unique event provides a comprehensive view of the reconnection geometry and dynamics in the solar corona.
- OSTI ID:
- 21452723
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 723, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/723/1/L28; ISSN 2041-8205
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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