Explosive events associated with a surge

M. S. Madjarska, J. G. Doyle, B. de Pontieu

Published 2009-06-14Version 1

The solar atmosphere contains a wide variety of small-scale transient features. Here, we explore the inter-relation between some of them such as surges, explosive events and blinkers via simultaneous spectral and imaging data taken with the TRACE imager, the SUMER, and CDS spectrometers on board SoHO, and SVST La Palma. The alignment of all data both in time and solar XY shows that SUMER line profiles, which are attributed to explosive events, are due to a surge phenomenon. The surge is triggered, most probably, by one or more Elerman bombs which are best visible in Halpha +-350 A but were also registered by TRACE Fe IX/X 171 A and correspond to a strong radiance increase in the CDS Mg IX 368.07 A line. With the present study we demonstrate that the division of small-scale transient events into a number of different subgroups, for instance explosive events, blinkers, spicules, surges or just brightenings, is ambiguous, implying that the definition of a feature based only on either spectroscopic or imaging characteristics as well as insufficient spectral and spatial resolution can be incomplete.