Identification

Title

Magnetic diffusion in solar atmosphere produces measurable electric fields

Abstract

The efficient release of magnetic energy in astrophysical plasmas, such as during solar flares, can in principle be achieved through magnetic diffusion, at a rate determined by the associated electric field. However, attempts at measuring electric fields in the solar atmosphere are scarce, and none exist for sites where the magnetic energy is presumably released. Here, we present observations of an energetic event using the National Science Foundationâ€™s Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, where we detect the polarization signature of electric fields associated with magnetic diffusion. We measure the linear and circular polarization across the hydrogen HÎµ Balmer line at 397â€‰nm at the site of a brightening event in the solar chromosphere. Our spectro-polarimetric modeling demonstrates that the observed polarization signals can only be explained by the presence of electric fields, providing conclusive evidence of magnetic diffusion, and opening a new window for the quantitative study of this mechanism in space plasmas.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7st7v9k

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

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Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

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reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

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date type

publication

effective date

2024-10-11T00:00:00Z

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<span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:10pt;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;" data-sheets-root="1">Copyright author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.</span>

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact