Letter to the Editor

Recurrent solar jets in active regions

¹ School of Mathematics and Statistics. St. Andrews University, St. Andrews, KY16 9SS, UK e-mail: vasilis@mcs.st-and.ac.uk
² Section of Astrophysics, Astronomy and Mechanics, Department of Physics, University of Athens, Panepistimiopolis, Zografos 157 84, Athens, Greece
³ Research Center for Astronomy and Applied Mathematics, Academy of Athens, 4 Soranou Efessiou Str., Athens 11527, Greece

Received: 27 November 2009
Accepted: 24 February 2010

Abstract

Aims. We study the emergence of a toroidal flux tube into the solar atmosphere and its interaction with a pre-existing field of an active region. We investigate the emission of jets as a result of repeated reconnection events between colliding magnetic fields.

Methods. We perform 3D simulations by solving the time-dependent, resistive MHD equations in a highly stratified atmosphere.

Results. A small active region field is constructed by the emergence of a toroidal magnetic flux tube. A current structure is build up and reconnection sets in when new emerging flux comes into contact with the ambient field of the active region. The topology of the magnetic field around the current structure is drastically modified during reconnection. The modification results in a formation of new magnetic systems that eventually collide and reconnect. We find that reconnection jets are taking place in successive recurrent phases in directions perpendicular to each other, while in each phase they release magnetic energy and hot plasma into the solar atmosphere. After a series of recurrent appearance of jets, the system approaches an equilibrium where the efficiency of the reconnection is substantially reduced. We deduce that the emergence of new magnetic flux introduces a perturbation to the active region field, which in turn causes reconnection between neighboring magnetic fields and the release of the trapped energy in the form of jet-like emissions. This is the first time that self-consistent recurrency of jets in active regions is shown in a three-dimensional experiment of magnetic flux emergence.