Tanmoy Samanta

NameTanmoy Samanta
AffiliationNASA/Marshall Space Flight Center
TitleGeneration of solar spicules and subsequent atmospheric heating
AuthorsHui Tian, Vasyl Yurchyshyn, Hardi Peter, Wenda Cao, Alphonse Sterling, Robertus Erdelyi, Kwangsu Ahn, Song Feng, Dominik Utz, Dipankar Banerjee, Yajie Chen
AbstractRapidly evolving fine-scale jets known as spicules are the most prominent and dynamical phenomena observed in the solar chromosphere. At any given instant, around a few million of these spicules shoot plasma material out from the Sun’s surface. It is highly likely that these spicules play a crucial role in key solar physics mysteries, such as chromospheric and coronal heating and mass supply to the solar wind. Despite intensive delving in the past decades, there is still no clear consensus on how these small-jets of magnetized plasma originate from the solar surface, nor we understand how exactly they transfer energy into and possibly heat the solar atmosphere. The exact source of these small-scale jets is hard to observe due to earlier telescopes' resolution limitations. Therefore, they remain poorly understood. Using unprecedented multi-wavelength and high-sensitive magnetic field observations from the 1.6-m Goode Solar Telescope at the Big Bear Solar Observatory, we strive to reach conclusions on the possible scenario among the many proposed hypotheses of spicule’s origin. We found that the dynamical interaction of magnetic fields in the partially ionized lower solar atmosphere is the precursor of these high-speed jets, which subsequently energizes the upper solar atmosphere.