Multi thermal atmosphere of a mini solar flare during magnetic reconnection observed with IRIS

TL;DR

This study uses IRIS and SDO observations to analyze the fine structure and dynamics of plasma in a mini solar flare, revealing multi-layered temperature stratification and high-velocity cool cloud ejections during magnetic reconnection.

Contribution

It provides the first quantification of fast cool cloud ejections and proposes a stratification model of the mini flare atmosphere based on multi-layered temperature analysis.

Findings

Identification of asymmetric Mg II and C II line profiles indicating chromospheric clouds.

Detection of high-speed (up to 290 km/s) cool cloud ejections during reconnection.

Proposal of a multi-layered stratification model for the mini flare atmosphere.

Abstract

The Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph(IRIS) with its high spatial and temporal resolution brings exceptional plasma diagnostics of solar chromospheric and coronal activity during magnetic reconnection. The aim of this work is to study the fine structure and dynamics of the plasma at a jet base forming a mini flare between two emerging magnetic fluxes (EMFs) observed with IRIS and the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) instruments. We proceed to a spatio-temporal analysis of IRIS spectra observed in the spectral ranges of Mg II, C II, and Si IV ions. Doppler velocities from Mg II lines are computed by using a cloud model technique. Strong asymmetric Mg II and C II line profiles with extended blue wings observed at the reconnection site (jet base) are interpreted by the presence of two chromospheric temperature clouds, one explosive cloud with blueshifts at 290 km/s and one cloud with smaller Dopplershift (around 36 km/s). Simultaneously at the same location (jet base), strong emission of several transition region lines (e.g. O IV and Si IV), emission of the Mg II triplet lines of the Balmer-continuum and absorption of identified chromospheric lines in Si IV broad profiles have been observed and analysed. Such observations of IRIS line and continuum emissions allow us to propose a stratification model for the white-light mini flare atmosphere with multiple layers of different temperatures along the line of sight, in a reconnection current sheet. It is the first time that we could quantify the fast speed (possibly Alfv\'enic flows) of cool clouds ejected perpendicularly to the jet direction by using the cloud model technique. We conjecture that the ejected clouds come from plasma which was trapped between the two EMFs before reconnection or be caused by chromospheric-temperature (cool) upflow material like in a surge, during reconnection