Chromospheric anemone jets as evidence of ubiquitous reconnection.

The heating of the solar chromosphere and corona is a long-standing puzzle in solar physics. Hinode observations show the ubiquitous presence of chromospheric anemone jets outside sunspots in active regions. They are typically 3 to 7 arc seconds = 2000 to 5000 kilometers long and 0.2 to 0.4 arc second = 150 to 300 kilometers wide, and their velocity is 10 to 20 kilometers per second. These small jets have an inverted Y-shape, similar to the shape of x-ray anemone jets in the corona. These features imply that magnetic reconnection similar to that in the corona is occurring at a much smaller spatial scale throughout the chromosphere and suggest that the heating of the solar chromosphere and corona may be related to small-scale ubiquitous reconnection.

Evaluation of seeing-induced cross talk in tip-tilt-corrected solar polarimetry.

We reanalyze the effects of atmosphere-induced image motions on the measurement of solar polarized light using a formalism developed by Lites. Our reanalysis is prompted by the advent of adaptive optics (AO) systems that reduce image motion and higher-order aberrations, by the availability of liquid crystals as modulation devices, and by the need to understand how best to design polarimeters for future telescopes such as the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope. In this first attempt to understand the major issues, we analyze the influence of residual image motion (tip-tilt) corrections of operational AO systems on the cross talk between Stokes parameters and present results for several polarization analysis schemes. Higher-order wave-front corrections are left for future research. We also restrict our discussion to the solar photosphere, which limits several important parameters of interest, using some recent magnetoconvection simulations.