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Science 7 December 2007:
Vol. 318. no. 5856, pp. 1591 - 1594
DOI: 10.1126/science.1146708
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Reports

Chromospheric Anemone Jets as Evidence of Ubiquitous Reconnection

Kazunari Shibata,1* Tahei Nakamura,1 Takuma Matsumoto,1 Kenichi Otsuji,1 Takenori J. Okamoto,1,2 Naoto Nishizuka,1 Tomoko Kawate,1 Hiroko Watanabe,1 Shin'ichi Nagata,1 Satoru UeNo,1 Reizaburo Kitai,1 Satoshi Nozawa,3 Saku Tsuneta,2 Yoshinori Suematsu,2 Kiyoshi Ichimoto,2 Toshifumi Shimizu,4 Yukio Katsukawa,2 Theodore D. Tarbell,5 Thomas E. Berger,5 Bruce W. Lites,6 Richard A. Shine,5 Alan M. Title5

The heating of the solar chromosphere and corona is a long-standing puzzle in solar physics. Hinode observations show the ubiquitous presence of chromospheric anemone jets outside sunspots in active regions. They are typically 3 to 7 arc seconds = 2000 to 5000 kilometers long and 0.2 to 0.4 arc second = 150 to 300 kilometers wide, and their velocity is 10 to 20 kilometers per second. These small jets have an inverted Y-shape, similar to the shape of x-ray anemone jets in the corona. These features imply that magnetic reconnection similar to that in the corona is occurring at a much smaller spatial scale throughout the chromosphere and suggest that the heating of the solar chromosphere and corona may be related to small-scale ubiquitous reconnection.

1 Kwasan and Hida Observatories, Kyoto University, Yamashina, Kyoto 607–8471, Japan.
2 National Astronomical Observatory, Mitaka, Tokyo 181–8588, Japan.
3 Department of Science, Ibaraki University, Mito, Ibaraki 310–8512, Japan.
4 Institute of Space and Astronautical Science/Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 229–8510, Japan.
5 Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory, B/252, 3251 Hanover Street, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA.
6 High Altitude Observatory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Post Office Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307–3000, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: shibata{at}kwasan.kyoto-u.ac.jp

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Are There Alfven Waves in the Solar Atmosphere?.
R. Erdelyi and V. Fedun (2007)
Science 318, 1572-1574
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)