Recurrent coronal jets induced by repetitively accumulated electric currents^⋆

¹ School of Astronomy and Space Science, Nanjing University, 210093 Nanjing, PR China
e-mail: guoyang@nju.edu.cn
² Key Laboratory of Modern Astronomy and Astrophysics (Nanjing University), Ministry of Education, 210093 Nanjing, PR China
³ LESIA, Observatoire de Paris, CNRS, UPMC, Université Paris Diderot, 5 place Jules Janssen, 92190 Meudon, France
⁴ Departamento de Física, Universidad de Los Andes, A.A. 4976, Bogotá, Colombia
⁵ W. W. Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA

Received: 3 February 2013
Accepted: 3 May 2013

Abstract

Context. Jets of plasma are frequently observed in the solar corona. A self-similar recurrent behavior is observed in a fraction of them.

Aims. Jets are thought to be a consequence of magnetic reconnection; however, the physics involved is not fully understood. Therefore, we study some jet observations with unprecedented temporal and spatial resolutions.

Methods. The extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) jets were observed by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) on board SDO measured the vector magnetic field, from which we derive the magnetic flux evolution, the photospheric velocity field, and the vertical electric current evolution. The magnetic configuration before the jets is derived by the nonlinear force-free field extrapolation.

Results. Three EUV jets recurred in about one hour on 17 September 2010 in the following magnetic polarity of active region 11106. We derive that the jets are above a pair of parasitic magnetic bipoles that are continuously driven by photospheric diverging flows. The interaction drove the buildup of electric currents, which we observed as elongated patterns at the photospheric level. For the first time, the high temporal cadence of the HMI allows the evolution of such small currents to be followed. In the jet region, we found that the integrated absolute current peaks repetitively in phase with the 171 Å flux evolution. The current buildup and its decay are both fast, about ten minutes each, and the current maximum precedes the 171 Å also by about ten minutes. Then, the HMI temporal cadence is marginally fast enough to detect such changes.

Conclusions. The photospheric current pattern of the jets is found to be associated with the quasi-separatrix layers deduced from the magnetic extrapolation. From previous theoretical results, the observed diverging flows are expected to continuously build such currents. We conclude that the magnetic reconnection occurs periodically, in the current layer created between the emerging bipoles and the large-scale active region field. The periodic magnetic reconnection induced the observed recurrent coronal jets and the decrease of the vertical electric current magnitude.