2010/09/24 by J. M. Borrero, V. Martínez-Pillet, V. Martinez Pillet +10
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Instability #Ionosphere and magnetosphere dynamics #Line (geometry) #Magnetic reconnection #Polarization (electrochemistry) #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #Sunrise #Supersonic speed #astro-ph.SR
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/2041-8205/723/2/l144
Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters. To appear in Sunrise special issue of ApJ Letters, vol 721. 5 pages, 2 bw figures, 2 color figures. 4 movies are available at ftp://ftp.kis.uni-freiburg.de/personal/borrero/sunrise/
arxiv created 2010/09/24 · openalex publication_date 2010/10/15 · arxiv updated 2015/05/19 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
Using the IMaX instrument on board the Sunrise stratospheric balloon telescope, we have detected extremely shifted polarization signals around the Fe i 5250.217 Å spectral line within granules in the solar photosphere. We interpret the velocities associated with these events as corresponding to supersonic and magnetic upflows. In addition, they are also related to the appearance of opposite polarities and highly inclined magnetic fields. This suggests that they are produced by the reconnection of emerging magnetic loops through granular upflows. The events occupy an average area of 0.046 arcsec 2 and last for about 80 s, with larger events having longer lifetimes. These supersonic events occur at a rate of 1.3 × 10 −5 occurrences per second per arcsec 2 .