Sun, Space Weather, and Solar-Stellar Connection

Quiet-Sun Ellerman Bombs and Their Impact on the Upper Solar Atmosphere

Jan 21, 2025, 11:40 AM

15m

Contributed talk Solar Chromospheric Dynamics

Speaker

Jayant Joshi (Indian Institute of Astrophysics)

Description

Recent high-resolution observations have shown that quiet-Sun Ellerman bombs (QSEBs), thought to be driven by magnetic reconnection in the deep solar atmosphere, are more prevalent than previously known, with about 750,000 present across the quiet Sun at any given time. Analyzing H$\beta$ and H$ϵ$ observations from the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope, we detected ubiquitous QSEBs characterized by rapid variability and flame-like morphologies. While a subset of these events showed localized heating in the transition region, indicated by UV brightenings in Si IV observations from the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, only a small fraction of QSEBs contributed to such heating. Additionally, we found cases where QSEBs were linked to the formation of type II spicules, suggesting that magnetic reconnection could be a driving mechanism for spicules. However, these associations account for only a small portion of the total number of QSEBs and spicules, indicating that QSEBs likely play a limited role in global upper-atmosphere heating and spicule formation.