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Minifilaments are widespread small-scale structures in the solar atmosphere. To better understand their formation and eruption mechanisms, we investigate the entire life of a sigmoidal minifilament located below a large quiescent filament observed by BBSO/GST on 2015 August 3. The H{\alpha} structure initially appears as a group of arched threads, then transforms into two J-shaped arcades, and finally forms a sigmoidal shape. SDO/AIA observations in 171{\AA} show that two coronal jets occur around the southern footpoint of the minifilament before the minifilament eruption. The minifilament eruption starts from the southern footpoint, then interacts with the overlying filament and fails. The aforementioned observational changes correspond to three episodes of flux cancellations observed by SDO/HMI. Unlike previous studies, the flux cancellation occurs between the polarity where southern footpoint of the minifilament is rooted in and an external polarity. We construct two magnetic field models before the eruption using the flux rope insertion method, and find an hyperbolic flux tube (HFT) above the flux cancellation site. The observation and modeling results suggest that the eruption is triggered by the external magnetic reconnection between the core field of the minifilament and the external fields due to flux cancellations. This study reveals a new triggering mechanism for minifilament eruptions and a new relationship between minifilament eruptions and coronal jets.

Aims. The aim of this paper is to consider relationship between the decay of sunspots and convection via the motion of the family of granules and how the diffusion mechanism of magnetic field operates in a decaying sunspot. Methods. We report the decay of a sunspot observed by the 1.6m Goode Solar Telescope (GST) with the TiO Broadband Filter Imager (BFI) and the Near-InfraRed Imaging Spectropolarimeter (NIRIS). The analysis was aided by the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) on board the Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO). In the first step, we followed the decay of the sunspot with HMI data over three days by constructing its evolving area and total magnetic flux. In the second step, the high spatial and temporal resolution of the GST instruments allowed us to analyze the causes of the decay of the sunspot. Afterward, we followed the emergence of granules in the moat region around the sunspot over six hours. The evolution of the trees of fragmenting granules (TFGs) was derived based on their relationship with the horizontal surface flows. Results. We find that the area and total magnetic flux display an exponential decrease over the course of the sunspot decay. We identified 22 moving magnetic features (MMFs) in the moats of pores, which is a signature of sunspot decay through diffusion. We note that the MMFs were constrained to follow the borders of TFGs during their journey away from the sunspot. Conclusions. The TFGs and their development contribute to the diffusion of the magnetic field outside the sunspot. The conclusion of our analysis shows the important role of the TFGs in sunspot decay. Finally, the the family of granules evacuates the magnetic field.

Minifilament (MF) eruption producing small jets and micro-flares is regarded as an important source for coronal heating and the solar wind transients through studies mostly based on coronal observations in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and X-ray wavelengths. In this study, we focus on the chromospheric plasma diagnostics of a tiny minifilament in quiet Sun located at [71'', 450''] on 2021--08--07 at 19:11 UT observed as part of the ninth encounter of the PSP campaign. Main data obtained are the high cadence, high resolution spectroscopy from the Fast Imaging Solar Spectrograph (FISS) and high-resolution magnetograms from the Near InfraRed Imaging Spectropolarimeter (NIRIS) on the 1.6~m Goode Solar Telescope (GST) at Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO). The mini-filament with size $\sim$1''$\times$5'' and a micro-flare are detected in both the H$\alpha$ line center and SDO/AIA 193, 304~\AA\ images. On the NIRIS magnetogram, we found that the cancellation of a magnetic bipole in the footpoints of the minifilament triggered its eruption in a sigmoidal shape. By inversion of the \ha\ and Ca {\sc ii} spectra under the embedded cloud model, we found a temperature increase of 3,800 K in the brightening region, associated with rising speed average of MF increased by 18~$km~s^{-1}$. This cool plasma is also found in the EUV images. We estimate the kinetic energy change of the rising filament as 1.5$\times$$10^{25}$~ergs, and thermal energy accumulation in the MF, 1.4$\times$$10^{25}$~ergs. From the photospheric magnetograms, we find the magnetic energy change is 1.6$\times$$10^{26}$~ergs across the PIL of converging opposite magnetic elements, which amounts to the energy release in the chromosphere in this smallest two-ribbon flare ever observed.

Aims. Recurring jets are observed in the solar atmosphere, which can erupt intermittently. By the observation of intermittent jets, we want to understand the causes of periodic eruption characteristics. Methods. We report intermittent jets observed by the GST. The analysis was aided by 1400 {\AA} and 2796 {\AA} data from IRIS.These observational instruments allowed us to analyze the temporal characteristics of jet events. Results. The jet continued for up to 4 hours. The time distance diagram shows that the peak of the jet has obviously periodic eruption characteristics (5 minutes) during 18:00 UT-18:50 UT. We also found periodic brightening phenomenon (5 minutes) during jets bursts in the observed bands in the Transition Region (1400 {\AA} and 2796 {\AA}), which may be a response to intermittent jets in the upper solar atmosphere.The time lag is 3 minutes. Evolutionary images in the TiO band revealed the horizontal movement of granulation at the location of jet. Compared to the quiet region of the Sun, we found that the footpoint of the jet is enhanced at the center of the H {\alpha} spectral line profile, with no significant changes in the line wings. This suggests the presence of prolonged heating at the footpoint of the jet. In the mixed-polarity magnetic field region of the jet, we observed magnetic flux emergence, cancellation, and shear indicating possible intermittent magnetic reconnection. That is confirmed by the NLFFF model reconstructed using the magneto-friction method. Conclusions. The multi-wavelength analysis indicates that the events we studied were triggered by magnetic reconnection caused by mixed-polarity magnetic fields. We suggest that the horizontal motion of the granulation in the photosphere drives the magnetic reconnection, which is modulated by p-mode oscillations.

Solar jets are well-collimated plasma ejections in the solar atmosphere. They are prevalent in active regions, the quiet Sun, and even coronal holes. They display a range of temperatures, yet the nature of the cool components has not been fully investigated. In this paper, we show the existence of the precursors and quasi-periodic properties for two chromospheric jets, mainly utilizing the He i 10830 {\AA} narrowband filtergrams taken by the Goode Solar Telescope (GST). The extreme ultraviolet (EUV) counterparts present during the eruption correspond to a blowout jet (jet 1) and a standard jet (jet 2), as observed by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on board the Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO). The high-resolution He i 10830 {\AA} observation captures a long-lasting precursor for jet 1, signified by a series of cool ejections. They are recurrent jet-like features with a quasi-period of about five minutes. On the other hand, the cool components of jet 2, recurrently accompanied by EUV emissions, present a quasi-periodic behavior with a period of about five minutes. Both the EUV brightening and He i 10830 {\AA} absorption show that there was a precursor for jet 2 that occurred about five minutes before its onset. We propose that the precursor of jet 1 may be the consequence of chromospheric shock waves, since the five-minute oscillation from the photosphere can leak into the chromosphere and develop into shocks. Then, we find that the quasi-periodic behavior of the cool components of jet 2 may be related to magnetic reconnections modulated by the oscillation in the photosphere.

Diagnosing the spatial-temporal pattern of magnetic flux on the Sun is vital for understanding the origin of solar magnetism and activity. Here, we report a new form of flux appearance, magnetic outbreak, using observations with an extremely high spatial resolution of 0.16 arcsec from the 1.6-m Goode Solar Telescope (GST) at the Big Bear Solar Observatory. Magnetic outbreak refers to an early growth of unipolar magnetic flux and its later explosion into fragments, in association with plasma upflow and exploding granulations; each individual fragment has flux of 10$^{16}$-10$^{17}$ Mx, moving apart with velocity of 0.5-2.2 km/s. The magnetic outbreak takes place in the hecto-Gauss region of pore moats. In this study, we identify six events of magnetic outbreak during 6-hour observations over an approximate 40$\times$40 arcsec$^{2}$ field of view. The newly discovered magnetic outbreak might be the first evidence of the long-anticipated convective blowup., Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures, accepted by ApJL

Solar observations of carbon monoxide (CO) indicate the existence of lower-temperature gas in the lower solar chromosphere. We present an observation of pores, and quiet-Sun, and network magnetic field regions with CO 4.66 {\mu}m lines by the Cryogenic Infrared Spectrograph (CYRA) at Big Bear Solar Observatory. We used the strong CO lines at around 4.66 {\mu}m to understand the properties of the thermal structures of lower solar atmosphere in different solar features with various magnetic field strengths. AIA 1700 {\AA} images, HMI continuum images and magnetograms are also included in the observation. The data from 3D radiation magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation with the Bifrost code are also employed for the first time to be compared with the observation. We used the RH code to synthesize the CO line profiles in the network regions. The CO 3-2 R14 line center intensity changes to be either enhanced or diminished with increasing magnetic field strength, which should be caused by different heating effects in magnetic flux tubes with different sizes. We find several "cold bubbles" in the CO 3-2 R14 line center intensity images, which can be classified into two types. One type is located in the quiet-Sun regions without magnetic fields. The other type, which has rarely been reported in the past, is near or surrounded by magnetic fields. Notably, some are located at the edge of the magnetic network. The two kinds of cold bubbles and the relationship between cold bubble intensities and network magnetic field strength are both reproduced by the 3D MHD simulation with the Bifrost and RH codes. The simulation also shows that there is a cold plasma blob near the network magnetic fields, causing the observed cold bubbles seen in the CO 3-2 R14 line center image. Our observation and simulation illustrate that the magnetic field plays a vital role in the generation of some CO cold bubbles., Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in A&A

Obtaining high-quality magnetic and velocity fields through Stokes inversion is crucial in solar physics. In this paper, we present a new deep learning method, named Stacked Deep Neural Networks (SDNN), for inferring line-of-sight (LOS) velocities and Doppler widths from Stokes profiles collected by the Near InfraRed Imaging Spectropolarimeter (NIRIS) on the 1.6 m Goode Solar Telescope (GST) at the Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO). The training data of SDNN is prepared by a Milne-Eddington (ME) inversion code used by BBSO. We quantitatively assess SDNN, comparing its inversion results with those obtained by the ME inversion code and related machine learning (ML) algorithms such as multiple support vector regression, multilayer perceptrons and a pixel-level convolutional neural network. Major findings from our experimental study are summarized as follows. First, the SDNN-inferred LOS velocities are highly correlated to the ME-calculated ones with the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient being close to 0.9 on average. Second, SDNN is faster, while producing smoother and cleaner LOS velocity and Doppler width maps, than the ME inversion code. Third, the maps produced by SDNN are closer to ME's maps than those from the related ML algorithms, demonstrating the better learning capability of SDNN than the ML algorithms. Finally, comparison between the inversion results of ME and SDNN based on GST/NIRIS and those from the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory in flare-prolific active region NOAA 12673 is presented. We also discuss extensions of SDNN for inferring vector magnetic fields with empirical evaluation., Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures

On the Sun,jets in light bridges are frequently observed with high-resolution instruments.The respective roles played by convection and the magnetic field in triggering such jets are not yet clear.We report a small fan-shaped jet along a LB observed by the 1.6m Goode Solar Telescope(GST) with the TiO Broadband Filter Imager(BFI),the Visible Imaging Spectrometer(VIS) in H{\alpha},and the Near-InfraRed Imaging Spectropolarimeter(NIRIS),along with the Stokes parameters.The high spatial and temporal resolution of those instruments allowed us to analyze the features identified during the jet event.By constructing the H{\alpha} Dopplergrams,we found that the plasma is first moving upward,whereas during the second phase of the jet,the plasma is flowing back.Working with time slice diagrams,we investigated the propagation-projected speed of the fan and its bright base.The fan-shaped jet developed within a few minutes,with diverging beams. At its base,a bright point was slipping along the LB and ultimately invaded the umbra of the sunspot.The H{\alpha} profiles of the bright points enhanced the intensity in the wings, similarly to the case of Ellerman bombs.Co-temporally,the extreme ultraviolet brightenings developed at the front of the dark material jet and moved at the same speed as the fan, leading us to propose that the fan-shaped jet material compressed and heated the ambient plasma at its extremities in the corona.Our multi-wavelength analysis indicates that the fan-shaped jet could result from magnetic reconnection across the highly diverging field low in the chromosphere,leading to an apparent slipping motion of the jet material along the LB.However,we did not find any opposite magnetic polarity at the jet base,as would typically be expected in such a configuration.We therefore discuss other plausible physical mechanisms,based on waves and convection, that may have triggered the event., Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures

We report on high resolution observations of recurrent fan-like jets by the Goode Solar telescope (GST) in multi-wavelengths inside a sunspot group. The dynamics behaviour of the jets is derived from the Ha line profiles. Quantitative values for one well-identified event have been obtained showing a maximum projected velocity of 42 km s^-1 and a Doppler shift of the order of 20 km s^-1. The footpoints/roots of the jets have a lifted center on the Ha line profile compared to the quiet sun suggesting a long lasting heating at these locations. The magnetic field between the small sunspots in the group shows a very high resolution pattern with parasitic polarities along the inter-granular lanes accompanied by high velocity converging flows (4 km s^-1) in the photosphere. Magnetic cancellations between the opposite polarities are observed in the vicinity of the footpoints of the jets. Along the inter-granular lanes horizontal magnetic field around 1000 Gauss is generated impulsively. Overall, all the kinetic features at the different layers through photosphere and chromosphere favor a convection-driven reconnection scenario for the recurrent fan-like jets, and evidence a site of reconnection between the photosphere and chromosphere corresponding to the inter-granular lanes., Comment: to be published in ApJ

Sausage waves have been frequently reported in solar magnetic structures such as sunspots, pores, and coronal loops. However, they have not been unambiguously identified in photospheric bright points (BPs). Using high-resolution TiO image sequences obtained with the Goode Solar Telescope at the Big Bear Solar Observatory, we analyzed four isolated BPs. It was found that their area and average intensity oscillate for several cycles in an in-phase fashion. The oscillation periods range from 100 to 200 seconds. We interpreted the phase relation as a signature of sausage waves, particularly slow waves, after discussing sausage-wave theory and the opacity effect., Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures

This study presents a C3.0 flare observed by the BBSO/GST and IRIS, on 2018-May-28 around 17:10 UT. The Near Infrared Imaging Spectropolarimeter (NIRIS) of GST was set to spectral imaging mode to scan five spectral positions at $\pm$ 0.8 \AA, $\pm$ 0.4 \AA and line center of He I 10830. At the flare ribbon's leading edge the line is observed to undergo enhanced absorption, while the rest of the ribbon is observed to be in emission. When in emission, the contrast compared to the pre-flare ranges from about $30~\%$ to nearly $100~\%$ at different spectral positions. Two types of spectra, "convex" shape with higher intensity at line core and "concave" shape with higher emission in the line wings, are found at the trailing and peak flaring areas, respectively. On the ribbon front, negative contrasts, or enhanced absorption, of about $\sim 10\% - 20\%$ appear in all five wavelengths. This observation strongly suggests that the negative flares observed in He I 10830 with mono-filtergram previously were not caused by pure Doppler shifts of this spectral line. Instead, the enhanced absorption appears to be a consequence of flare energy injection, namely non-thermal collisional ionization of helium caused by the precipitation of high energy electrons, as found in our recent numerical modeling results. In addition, though not strictly simultaneous, observations of Mg II from the IRIS spacecraft, show an obvious central reversal pattern at the locations where enhanced absorption of He I 10830 is seen, which is in consistent with previous observations., Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures Accepted by ApJ Letters

We gave an extensive study for the quasi-periodic perturbations on the time profiles of the line of sight (LOS) magnetic field in 10x10 sub-areas in a solar plage region (corresponds to a facula on the photosphere). The perturbations are found to be associated with enhancement of He I 10830 A absorption in a moss region, which is connected to loops with million-degree plasma. FFT analysis to the perturbations gives a kind of spectrum similar to that of Doppler velocity: a number of discrete periods around 5 minutes. The amplitudes of the magnetic perturbations are found to be proportional to magnetic field strength over these sub-areas. In addition, magnetic perturbations lag behind a quarter of cycle in phase with respect to the p-mode Doppler velocity. We show that the relationships can be well explained with an MHD solution for the magneto-acoustic oscillations in high-\b{eta} plasma. Observational analysis also shows that, for the two regions with the stronger and weaker magnetic field, the perturbations are always anti-phased. All findings show that the magnetic perturbations are actually magneto-acoustic oscillations on the solar surface, the photosphere, powered by p-mode oscillations. The findings may provide a new diagnostic tool for exploring the relationship between magneto-acoustic oscillations and the heating of solar upper atmosphere, as well as their role in helioseismology.

In this paper, we report the observed temporal correlation between extreme-violet (EUV) emission and magneto-acoustic oscillations in a EUV moss region, which is the footpoint region only connected by magnetic loops with million-degree plasma. The result is obtained from a detailed multi-wavelength data analysis to the region with the purpose of resolving fine-scale mass and energy flows that come from the photosphere, pass through the chromosphere and finally heat solar transition region or the corona. The data set covers three atmospheric levels on the Sun, consisting of high-resolution broad-band imaging at TiO 7057 \AA\ and the line of sight magnetograms for the photosphere, high-resolution narrow-band images at Helium \textsc{i} 10830 \AA\ for the chromosphere and EUV images at 171 \AA\ for the corona. We report following new phenomena: 1) Repeated injections of chromospheric material shown as 10830 \AA\ absorption are squirted out from inter-granular lanes with the period of $\sim$ 5 minutes. 2) EUV emissions are found to be periodically modulated with the similar periods of $\sim$ 5 minutes. 3) Around the injection area where 10830 \AA\ absorption is enhanced, both EUV emissions and the strength of magnetic field are remarkably stronger. 4) The peaks on the time profile of the EUV emissions are found to be in sync with oscillatory peaks of the stronger magnetic field in the region. These findings may give a series of strong evidences supporting the scenario that coronal heating is powered by magneto-acoustic waves., Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures

Recent observations demonstrated that emerging flux regions, which constitute the early stage of solar active regions, consist of emergence of numerous small-scale magnetic elements. They in turn interact, merge, and form mature sunspots. However, observations of fine magnetic structures on photosphere with sub-arcsecond resolution are very rare due to limitations of observing facilities. In this work, taking advantage of the high resolution of the 1.6 m Goode Solar Telescope, we jointly analyze vector magnetic fields, continuum images, and H{\alpha} observations of NOAA AR 12665 on 2017 July 13, with the goal of understanding the signatures of small-scale flux emergence, as well as their atmospheric responses as they emerge through multiple heights in photosphere and chromosphere. Under such a high resolution of 0.1" to 0.2", our results confirm two kinds of small-scale flux emergence: magnetic flux sheet emergence associated with the newly forming granules, and the traditional magnetic flux loop emergence. With direct imaging in the broadband TiO, we observe that both types of flux emergence are associated with darkening of granular boundaries, while only flux sheets elongate granules along the direction of emerging magnetic fields and expand laterally. With a life span of 10--15 minutes, the total emerged vertical flux is in order of 10$^{18}$ Mx for both types of emergence. The magnitudes of the vertical and horizontal fields are comparable in the flux sheets, while the former is stronger in flux loops. H{\alpha} observations reveal transient brightenings in the wings in the events of magnetic loop emergence, which are most probably the signatures of Ellerman bombs.

Flux ropes are generally believed to be core structures of solar eruptions that are significant for the space weather, but their formation mechanism remains intensely debated. We report on the formation of a tiny flux rope beneath clusters of active region loops on 2018 August 24. Combining the high-quality multiwavelength observations from multiple instruments, we studied the event in detail in the photosphere, chromosphere, and corona. In the source region, the continual emergence of two positive polarities (P1 and P2) that appeared as two pores (A and B)is unambiguous. Interestingly, P2 and Pore B slowly approached P1 and Pore A, implying a magnetic flux convergence. During the emergence and convergence, P1 and P2 successively interacted with a minor negative polarity (N3) that emerged, which led to a continuous magnetic flux cancellation. As a result, the overlying loops became much sheared and finally evolved into a tiny twisted flux rope that was evidenced by a transient inverse S-shaped sigmoid, the twisted filament threads with blueshift and redshift signatures, and a hot channel. All the results show that the formation of the tiny flux rope in the center of the active region was closely associated with the continuous magnetic flux emergence, convergence, and cancellation in the photosphere. Hence, we suggest that the magnetic flux emergence, convergence, and cancellation are crucial for the formation of the tiny flux rope.

CYRA (CrYogenic solar spectrogRAph) is a facility instrument of the 1.6-meter Goode Solar Telescope (GST) at the Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO). CYRA focuses on the study of the near-infrared solar spectrum between 1 and 5 microns, a under explored region which is not only a fertile ground for photospheric magnetic diagnostics, but also allows a unique window into the chromosphere lying atop the photosphere. CYRA is the first ever fully cryogenic spectrograph in any solar observatory with its two predecessors, on the McMath-Pierce and Mees Telescopes, being based on warm optics except for the detectors and order sorting filters. CYRA is used to probe magnetic fields in various solar features and the quiet photosphere. CYRA measurements will allow new and better 3D extrapolations of the solar magnetic field and will provide more accurate boundary conditions for solar activity models. Superior spectral resolution of 150,000 and better allows enhanced observations of the chromosphere in the carbon monoxide (CO) spectral bands and will yield a better understanding of energy transport in the solar atmosphere. CYRA is divided into two optical sub-systems: The Fore-Optics Module and the Spectrograph. The Spectrograph is the heart of the instrument and contains the IR detector, grating, slits, filters, and imaging optics all in a cryogenically cooled Dewar (cryostat). The detector a 2048 by 2048 pixel HAWAII 2 array produced by Teledyne Scientific & Imaging, LLC. The interior of the cryostat and the readout electronics are maintained at 90 Kelvin by helium refrigerant based cryo-coolers, while the IR array is cooled to 30 Kelvin. The Fore-Optics Module de-rotates and stabilizes the solar image, provides scanning capabilities, and transfers the GST image to the Spectrograph. CYRA has been installed and is undergoing its commissioning phase., Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables. Prepared for SPIE conference proceedings

The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) will revolutionize our ability to measure, understand and model the basic physical processes that control the structure and dynamics of the Sun and its atmosphere. The first-light DKIST images, released publicly on 29 January 2020, only hint at the extraordinary capabilities which will accompany full commissioning of the five facility instruments. With this Critical Science Plan (CSP) we attempt to anticipate some of what those capabilities will enable, providing a snapshot of some of the scientific pursuits that the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope hopes to engage as start-of-operations nears. The work builds on the combined contributions of the DKIST Science Working Group (SWG) and CSP Community members, who generously shared their experiences, plans, knowledge and dreams. Discussion is primarily focused on those issues to which DKIST will uniquely contribute.

Spicules are rapidly evolving fine-scale jets of magnetized plasma in the solar chromosphere. It remains unclear how these prevalent jets originate from the solar surface and what role they play in heating the solar atmosphere. Using the Goode Solar Telescope at the Big Bear Solar Observatory, we observed spicules emerging within minutes of the appearance of opposite-polarity magnetic flux around dominant-polarity magnetic field concentrations. Data from the Solar Dynamics Observatory showed subsequent heating of the adjacent corona. The dynamic interaction of magnetic fields (likely due to magnetic reconnection) in the partially ionized lower solar atmosphere appears to generate these spicules and heat the upper solar atmosphere., Comment: Published in Science, File includes the main text and supplementary materials

We analyze ground-based chromospheric data acquired at a high temporal cadence of 2 s in wings of the H$\alpha$ spectral line using Goode Solar Telescope (GST) operating at the Big Bear Solar Observatory. We inspected a 30 minute long H$\alpha$-0.08~nm data set to find that rapid blue-shifted H$\alpha$ excursions (RBEs), which are a cool component of type II spicules, experience very rapid morphological changes on the time scales of the order of 1 second. Unlike typical reconnection jets, RBEs very frequently appear \textit{in situ} without any clear evidence of H$\alpha$ material being injected from below. Their evolution includes inverted "Y", "V", "N", and parallel splitting (doubling) patterns as well as sudden formation of a diffuse region followed by branching. We also find that the same feature may undergo several splitting episodes within about 1 min time interval., Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures

The Near-IR Imaging Spectropolarimeter (NIRIS) is a polarimeter that is installed at the New Solar Telescope at Big Bear Solar Observatory. This instrument takes advantages of the highest spatial resolution and flux. The primary mirror is an on-axis type, so it was our interest to evaluate its contribution to the crosstalk among the Stokes parameters since we could not put our calibration optics before the mirror. We would like to present our efforts to compensate for the crosstalk among Stokes profiles caused by the relay optics from the telescope to the detector. The overall data processing pipeline is also introduced.

Ellerman bombs (EBs) are small-scale intense brightenings in H$\alpha$ wing images, which are generally believed to be signatures of magnetic reconnection events around the temperature minimum region of the solar atmosphere. They have a flame-like morphology when observed near the solar limb. Recent observations from the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) reveal another type of small-scale reconnection events, termed UV bursts, in the lower atmosphere. Though previous observations have shown a clear coincidence of some UV bursts and EBs, the exact relationship between these two phenomena is still under debate. We investigate the spatial and temporal relationship between flame-like EBs and UV bursts using joint near-limb observations between the 1.6--meter Goode Solar Telescope (GST) and IRIS. In total 161 EBs have been identified from the GST observations, and 20 of them reveal signatures of UV bursts in the IRIS images. Interestingly, we find that these UV bursts have a tendency to appear at the upper parts of their associated flame-like EBs. The intensity variations of most EB-related UV bursts and their corresponding EBs match well. Our results suggest that these UV bursts and EBs are likely formed at different heights during a common reconnection process., Comment: 5 figures; accepted by ApJL

We observed an H$\alpha$ surge occurred in the active region NOAA 12401 on 2015 August 17, and discuss its trigger mechanism, kinematic and thermal properties. It is suggested that this surge is caused by a chromospheric reconnection which ejects cool and dense material with the transverse velocity about 21-28 km s$^{-1}$ and the initial doppler velocity of 12 km s$^{-1}$. This surge is similar to the injection of newly formed filament materials from their footpoints, except that the surge here occurred in a relatively weak magnetic environment of ~100 G. Thus we discuss the possibility of filament material replenishment via the erupting mass in such a weak magnetic field, which is often associated with quiescent filaments. It is found that the local plasma can be heated up to about 1.3 times of original temperature, which results in an acceleration about -0.017 km s$^{-2}$. It can lift the dense material up to 10 Mm and higher with a inclination angle smaller than 50$^{\circ}$, namely typical height of active region filaments. But it can hardly inject the material up to those filaments higher than 25 Mm, namely some quiescent filaments. Thus we think injection model does not work well in the formation of quiescent filaments., Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, Accepted by RAA

Dynamical jets are generally found on Light bridges (LBs), which are key to studying sunspots decays. So far, their formation mechanism is not fully understood. In this paper, we used state-of-the-art observations from the Goode Solar Telescope, the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, the Spectro-Polarimeter on board Hinode and the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory to analyze the fan shape jets on LBs in detail. Continuous upward motion of the jets in ascending phase is found from the H$\alpha$ velocity, which lasts for 12 minutes and is associated with the H$\alpha$ line wing enhancements. Two mini jets appear upon the bright fronts of the fan shape jets visible in the AIA 171 {\AA} and 193 {\AA} channels, with a time interval as short as 1 minute. Two kinds of small scale convective motions are identified in the photospheric images, along with the H$\alpha$ line wing enhancements. One seems to be associated with the formation of a new convection cell and the other manifests as the motion of a dark lane passing through the convection cell. The finding of three lobes Stokes V profiles and their inversion with NICOLE code indicates that there is magnetic field lines with opposite polarities in LBs. From the H$\alpha$ -0.8 {\AA} images, we found ribbon like brightenings propagating along the LBs, possibly indicating slipping reconnection. Our observation supports that the fan shape jets under study are caused by the magnetic reconnection and photospheric convective motions play an important role in triggering the magnetic reconnection., Comment: 33pages,8figures

The photospheric response to solar flares, also known as coronal back reaction, is often observed as sudden flare-induced changes in vector magnetic field and sunspot motions. However, it remains obscure whether evolving flare ribbons, the flare signature closest to the photosphere, are accompanied by changes in vector magnetic field therein. Here we explore the relationship between the dynamics of flare ribbons in the chromosphere and variations of magnetic fields in the underlying photosphere, using high-resolution off-band H-alpha images and near-infrared vector magnetograms of the M6.5 flare on 2015 June 22 observed with the 1.6 m Goode Solar Telescope. We find that changes of photospheric fields occur at the arrival of the flare ribbon front, thus propagating analogously to flare ribbons. In general, the horizontal field increases and the field lines become more inclined to the surface. When ribbons sweep through regions that undergo a rotational motion, the fields transiently turn more vertical with decreased horizontal field and inclination angle, and then restore and/or become more horizontal than before the ribbon arrival. The ribbon propagation decelerates near the sunspot rotation center, where the vertical field becomes permanently enhanced. Similar magnetic field changes are discernible in magnetograms from the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI), and an inward collapse of coronal magnetic fields is inferred from the time sequence of non-linear force-free field models extrapolated from HMI magnetograms. We conclude that photospheric fields respond nearly instantaneously to magnetic reconnection in the corona., Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures, accepted to ApJ

The authors of this report met on 28-30 March 2018 at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, New Jersey, for a 3-day workshop that brought together a group of data providers, expert modelers, and computer and data scientists, in the solar discipline. Their objective was to identify challenges in the path towards building an effective framework to achieve transformative advances in the understanding and forecasting of the Sun-Earth system from the upper convection zone of the Sun to the Earth's magnetosphere. The workshop aimed to develop a research roadmap that targets the scientific challenge of coupling observations and modeling with emerging data-science research to extract knowledge from the large volumes of data (observed and simulated) while stimulating computer science with new research applications. The desire among the attendees was to promote future trans-disciplinary collaborations and identify areas of convergence across disciplines. The workshop combined a set of plenary sessions featuring invited introductory talks and workshop progress reports, interleaved with a set of breakout sessions focused on specific topics of interest. Each breakout group generated short documents, listing the challenges identified during their discussions in addition to possible ways of attacking them collectively. These documents were combined into this report-wherein a list of prioritized activities have been collated, shared and endorsed., Comment: Workshop Report

We present unprecedented high-resolution TiO images and Fe I 1565 nm spectropolarimetric data of two light bridges taken by the 1.6-m Goode Solar Telescope at Big Bear Solar Observatory. In the first light bridge (LB1), we find striking knot-like dark structures within the central dark lane. Many dark knots show migration away from the penumbra along the light bridge. The sizes, intensity depressions and apparent speeds of their proper motion along the light bridges of 33 dark knots identified from the TiO images are mainly in the ranges of 80$\sim$200~km, 30\%$\sim$50\%, and 0.3$\sim$1.2~km~s$^{-1}$, respectively. In the second light bridge (LB2), a faint central dark lane and striking transverse intergranular lanes were observed. These intergranular lanes have sizes and intensity depressions comparable to those of the dark knots in LB1, and also migrate away from the penumbra at similar speeds. Our observations reveal that LB2 is made up of a chain of evolving convection cells, as indicated by patches of blue shift surrounded by narrow lanes of red shift. The central dark lane generally corresponds to blueshifts, supporting the previous suggestion of central dark lanes being the top parts of convection upflows. In contrast, the intergranular lanes are associated with redshifts and located at two sides of each convection cell. The magnetic fields are stronger in intergranular lanes than in the central dark lane. These results suggest that these intergranular lanes are manifestations of convergent convective downflows in the light bridge. We also provide evidence that the dark knots observed in LB1 may have a similar origin., Comment: 6 figures

We present a formation process of a filament in active region NOAA 12574 during the period from 2016 August 11 to 12. Combining the observations of GONG H$\alpha$, Hida spectrum and SDO/AIA 304 A, the formation process of the filament is studied. It is found that cool material ($T\sim10^4$ K) is ejected by a series of jets originating from the western foot-point of the filament. Simultaneously, the magnetic flux emerged from the photosphere in the vicinity of the western foot-point of the filament. These observations suggest that cool material in the low atmosphere can be directly injected into the upper atmosphere and the jets are triggered by the magnetic reconnection between pre-existing magnetic fields and new emerging magnetic fields. Detailed study of a jet at 18:02 UT on August 11 with GST/BBSO TiO observations reveals that some dark threads appeared in the vicinity of the western foot-point after the jet and the projection velocity of plasma along the filament axis was about 162.6$\pm$5.4 km/s. Using with DST/Hida observations, we find that the injected plasma by a jet at 00:42 UT on August 12 was rotating. Therefore, we conclude that the jets not only supplied the material for the filament, but also injected the helicity into the filament simultaneously. Comparing the quantity of mass injection by the jets with the mass of the filament, we conclude that the estimated mass loading by the jets is sufficient to account for the mass in the filament., Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal

We study five sequential solar flares (SOL2015-08-07) occurring in Active Region 12396 observed with the Goode Solar Telescope (GST) at the BBSO, complemented by IRIS and SDO observations. The main flaring region is an arch filament system (AFS) consisting of multiple bundles of dark filament threads enclosed by semi-circular flare ribbons. We study the magnetic configuration and evolution of the active region by constructing coronal magnetic field models based on SDO/HMI magnetograms using two independent methods, i.e., the nonlinear force-free field (NLFFF) extrapolation and the flux rope insertion method. The models consist of multiple flux ropes with mixed signs of helicity, i.e., positive (negative) in the northern (southern) region, which is consistent with the GST observations of multiple filament bundles. The footprints of quasi-separatrix layers (QSLs) derived from the extrapolated NLFFF compare favorably with the observed flare ribbons. An interesting double-ribbon fine structure located at the east border of the AFS is consistent with the fine structure of the QSL's footprint. Moreover, magnetic field lines traced along the semi-circular footprint of a dome-like QSL surrounding the AFS are connected to the regions of significant helicity and Poynting flux injection. The maps of magnetic twist show that positive twist became dominant as time progressed, which is consistent with the injection of positive helicity before the flares. We hence conclude that these circular shaped flares are caused by 3D magnetic reconnection at the QSLs associated with the AFS possessing mixed signs of helicity.

Solid evidence of magnetic reconnection is rarely reported within sunspots, the darkest regions with the strongest magnetic fields and lowest temperatures in the solar atmosphere. Using the world's largest solar telescope, the 1.6-meter Goode Solar Telescope, we detect prevalent reconnection through frequently occurring fine-scale jets in the H${\alpha}$ line wings at light bridges, the bright lanes that may divide the dark sunspot core into multiple parts. Many jets have an inverted Y-shape, shown by models to be typical of reconnection in a unipolar field environment. Simultaneous spectral imaging data from the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph show that the reconnection drives bidirectional flows up to 200~km~s$^{-1}$, and that the weakly ionized plasma is heated by at least an order of magnitude up to $\sim$80,000 K. Such highly dynamic reconnection jets and efficient heating should be properly accounted for in future modeling efforts of sunspots. Our observations also reveal that the surge-like activity previously reported above light bridges in some chromospheric passbands such as the H${\alpha}$ core has two components: the ever-present short surges likely to be related to the upward leakage of magnetoacoustic waves from the photosphere, and the occasionally occurring long and fast surges that are obviously caused by the intermittent reconnection jets., Comment: ApJ, 8 figures

As one of the most violent eruptions on the Sun, flares are believed to be powered by magnetic reconnection. The fundamental physics involving the release, transfer and deposition of energy have been studied extensively. Taking advantage of the unprecedented resolution provided by the 1.6-m Goode Solar Telescope, here we show a sudden rotation of vector magnetic fields, about 12$^{\circ}$-20$^{\circ}$ counterclockwise, associated with a flare. Unlike the permanent changes reported previously, the azimuth-angle change is transient and co-spatial/temporal with H$\alpha$ emission. The measured azimuth angle becomes closer to that in potential fields suggesting untwist of flare loops. The magnetograms were obtained in the near infrared at 1.56~$\mu$m, which is minimally affected by flare emission and no intensity profile change was detected. We believe that these transient changes are real and discuss the possible explanations in which the high energy electron beams or $Alfv\acute{e}n$ waves play a crucial role., Comment: http://rdcu.be/Epb8

Solar Active Region (AR) 12673 is the most flare productive AR in the solar cycle 24. It produced four X-class flares including the X9.3 flare on 06 September 2017 and the X8.2 limb event on 10 September. Sun and Norton (2017) reported that this region had an unusual high rate of flux emergence, while Huang et al. (2018) reported that the X9.3 flare had extremely strong white-light flare emissions. Yang at al. (2017) described the detailed morphological evolution of this AR. In this report, we focus on usual behaviors of the light bridge (LB) dividing the delta configuration of this AR, namely the strong magnetic fields (above 5500 G) in the LB and apparent photospheric twist as shown in observations with a 0.1 arcsec spatial resolution obtained by the 1.6m telescope at Big Bear Solar Observatory., Comment: 1 Figure, Accepted by RNAAS

We analyze the high-resolution observations from the 1.6m telescope at Big Bear Solar Observatory that cover an active region filament. Counter-streaming motions are clearly observed in the filament. The northern end of the counter-streaming motions extends to a light bridge, forming a spectacular circulation pattern around a sunspot, with clockwise motion in the blue wing and counterclockwise motion in the red wing as observed in Halpha off-bands. The apparent speed of the flow is around 10 to 60 km/s in the filament, decreasing to 5 to 20 km/s in the light bridge. The most intriguing results are the magnetic structure and the counter-streaming motions in the light bridge. Similar to those in the filament, magnetic fields show a dominant transverse component in the light bridge. However, the filament is located between opposite magnetic polarities, while the light bridge is between strong fields of the same polarity. We analyze the power of oscillations with the image sequences of constructed Dopplergrams, and find that the filament's counter-streaming motion is due to physical mass motion along fibrils, while the light bridge's counter-streaming motion is due to oscillation in the direction along the line-of-sight. The oscillation power peaks around 4 minutes. However, the section of the light bridge next to the filament also contains a component of the extension of the filament in combination with the oscillation, indicating that some strands of the filament are extended to and rooted in that part of the light bridge., Comment: 5 Figures, ApJ Letter, Accepted

We present results from the investigation of 5-min umbral oscillations in a single-polarity sunspot of active region NOAA 12132. The spectra of TiO, H$\alpha$, and 304 \AA{} are used for corresponding atmospheric heights from the photosphere to lower corona. Power spectrum analysis at the formation height of H$\alpha$ - 0.6 \AA{} to H$\alpha$ center resulted in the detection of 5-min oscillation signals in intensity interpreted as running waves outside the umbral center, mostly with vertical magnetic field inclination $>15\deg$. A phase-speed filter is used to extract the running wave signals with speed $v_{ph}> 4$ km s$^{-1}$, from the time series of H$\alpha$ - 0.4 \AA{} images, and found twenty-four 3-min umbral oscillatory events in a duration of one hour. Interestingly, the initial emergence of the 3-min umbral oscillatory events are noticed closer to or at umbral boundaries. These 3-min umbral oscillatory events are observed for the first time as propagating from a fraction of preceding Running Penumbral Waves (RPWs). These fractional wavefronts rapidly separates from RPWs and move towards umbral center, wherein they expand radially outwards suggesting the beginning of a new umbral oscillatory event. We found that most of these umbral oscillatory events develop further into RPWs. We speculate that the waveguides of running waves are twisted in spiral structures and hence the wavefronts are first seen at high latitudes of umbral boundaries and later at lower latitudes of the umbral center., Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures, Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

Solar flares are generally believed to be powered by free magnetic energy stored in the corona, but the build up of coronal energy alone may be insufficient for the imminent flare occurrence. The flare onset mechanism is a critical but less understood problem, insights into which could be gained from small-scale energy releases known as precursors, which are observed as small pre-flare brightenings in various wavelengths, and also from certain small-scale magnetic configurations such as the opposite polarity fluxes, where magnetic orientation of small bipoles is opposite to that of the ambient main polarities. However, high-resolution observations of flare precursors together with the associated photospheric magnetic field dynamics are lacking. Here we study precursors of a flare using unprecedented spatiotemporal resolution of the 1.6 m New Solar Telescope, complemented by novel microwave data. Two episodes of precursor brightenings are initiated at a small-scale magnetic channel (a form of opposite polarity fluxes) with multiple polarity inversions and enhanced magnetic fluxes and currents, lying near the footpoints of sheared magnetic loops. The low-atmospheric origin of these precursor emissions is corroborated by microwave spectra. We propose that the emerging magnetic channel field interacts with the sheared arcades to cause precursor brightenings at the main flare core region. These high-resolution results provide evidence of low-atmospheric small-scale energy release and possible relationship to the onset of the main flare., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, plus 4 supplementary figures and 2 supplementary videos, published in Nature Astronomy

Ellerman bombs (EBs) are a kind of solar activities that is suggested to occur in the lower atmosphere. Recent observations using the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) show connections of EBs and IRIS bombs (IBs), implying that EBs might be heated to a much higher temperature ($8\times10^{4}$ K) than previous results. Here we perform a spectral analysis of the EBs simultaneously observed by the Fast Imaging Solar Spectrograph (FISS) and IRIS. The observational results show clear evidence of heating in the lower atmosphere, indicated by the wing enhancement in H$\alpha$, Ca II 8542 \r{A} and Mg II triplet lines, and also by brightenings in the images of 1700 \r{A} and 2832 \r{A} ultraviolet continuum channels. Additionally, the Mg II triplet line intensity is correlated with that of H$\alpha$ when the EB occurs, indicating the possibility to use the triplet as an alternative way to identify EBs. However, we do not find any signal in IRIS hotter lines (C II and Si IV). For further analysis, we employ a two-cloud model to fit the two chromospheric lines (H$\alpha$ and Ca II 8542 \r{A}) simultaneously, and obtain a temperature enhancement of 2300 K for a strong EB. This temperature is among the highest of previous modeling results while still insufficient to produce IB signatures at ultraviolet wavelengths., Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, accepted by ApJ

All next generation ground-based and space-based solar telescopes require a good quality assessment metric in order to evaluate their imaging performance. In this paper, a new image quality metric, the median filter gradient similarity (MFGS) is proposed for photospheric images. MFGS is a no-reference/blind objective image quality metric (IQM) by a measurement result between 0 and 1 and has been performed on short-exposure photospheric images captured by the New Vacuum Solar Telescope (NVST) of the Fuxian Solar Observatory and by the Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) onboard the Hinode satellite, respectively. The results show that: (1)the measured value of MFGS changes monotonically from 1 to 0 with degradation of image quality; (2)there exists a linear correlation between the measured values of MFGS and root-mean-square-contrast (RMS-contrast) of granulation; (3)MFGS is less affected by the image contents than the granular RMS-contrast. Overall, MFGS is a good alternative for the quality assessment of photospheric images.

It is important to study the fine structures of solar filaments with high-resolution observations since it can help us understand the magnetic and thermal structures of the filaments and their dynamics. In this paper, we study a newly-formed filament located inside the active region NOAA 11762, which was observed by the 1.6 m New Solar Telescope (NST) at Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) from 16:40:19 UT to 17:07:58 UT on 2013 June 5. As revealed by the H$\alpha$ filtergrams, cool material is seen to be injected into the filament spine with a speed of 5--10 km s$^{-1}$. At the source of the injection, brightenings are identified in the chromosphere, which is accompanied by magnetic cancellation in the photosphere, implying the importance of magnetic reconnection in replenishing the filament with plasmas from the lower atmosphere. Counter-streamings are detected near one endpoint of the filament, with the plane-of-the-sky speed being 7--9 km s$^{-1}$ in the H$\alpha$ red-wing filtergrams and 9--25 km s$^{-1}$ in the blue-wing filtergrams. The observations are indicative of that this active region filament is supported by a sheared arcade without magnetic dips, and the counter-streamings are due to unidirectional flows with alternative directions, rather than due to the longitudinal oscillations of filament threads as in many other filaments., Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures, published by ApJ

Solar filaments can be formed via chromospheric evaporation followed by condensation in the corona or by the direct injection of cool plasma from the chromosphere to the corona. In this paper, with high-resolution H$\alpha$ data observed by the 1.6 m New Solar Telescope of the Big Bear Solar Observatory on 2015 August 21, we confirmed that an active-region filament is maintained by the continuous injection of cold chromospheric plasma. We find that the filament is rooted along a bright ridge in H$\alpha$, which corresponds to the intersection of a magnetic quasi-separatrix layer with the solar surface. This bright ridge consists of many small patches and the sizes of these patches are comparable to the width of the filament threads. It is found that upflows originate from the brighter patches of the ridge, whereas the downflows move toward the weaker patches of the ridge. The whole filament is composed of two opposite directional streams, implying that longitudinal oscillations are not the only cause of the counterstreamings, and unidirectional siphon flows with alternative directions are another possibility., Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, accepted by ApJ

In this paper, we report our first-step results of high resolution He\,\textsc{i} 10830 \AA\ narrow-band imaging (bandpass: 0.5 {\AA}) of an M1.8 class two-ribbon flare on July 5, 2012. The flare was observed with the 1.6 meter aperture New Solar Telescope at Big Bear Solar Observatory. For this unique data set, sunspot dynamics during flaring were analyzed for the first time. By directly imaging the upper chromosphere, running penumbral waves are clearly seen as an outward extension of umbral flashes, both take the form of absorption in the 10830 \AA\ narrow-band images. From a space-time image made of a slit cutting across a flare ribbon and the sunspot, we find that the dark lanes for umbral flashes and penumbral waves are obviously broadened after the flare. The most prominent feature is the sudden appearance of an oscillating absorption strip inside the ribbon when it sweeps into the sunspot's penumbral and umbral regions. During each oscillation, outwardly propagating umbral flashes and subsequent penumbral waves rush out into the inwardly sweeping ribbon, followed by a returning of the absorption strip with similar speed. We tentatively explain the phenomena as the result of a sudden increase in the density of ortho-Helium atoms in the area of the sunspot being excited by the flare's EUV illumination. This explanation is based on the observation that 10830 \AA\ absorption around the sunspot area gets enhanced during the flare. Nevertheless, questions are still open and we need further well-devised observations to investigate the behavior of sunspot dynamics during flares., Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures

Sunspots are concentrations of magnetic field visible on the solar surface (photosphere). It was considered implausible that solar flares, as resulted from magnetic reconnection in the tenuous corona, would cause a direct perturbation of the dense photosphere involving bulk motion. Here we report the sudden flare-induced rotation of a sunspot using the unprecedented spatiotemporal resolution of the 1.6 m New Solar Telescope, supplemented by magnetic data from the Solar Dynamics Observatory. It is clearly observed that the rotation is non-uniform over the sunspot: as the flare ribbon sweeps across, its different portions accelerate (up to 50 deg per hr) at different times corresponding to peaks of flare hard X-ray emission. The rotation may be driven by the surface Lorentz-force change due to the back reaction of coronal magnetic restructuring and is accompanied by a downward Poynting flux. These results have direct consequences for our understanding of energy and momentum transportation in the flare-related phenomena., Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, published in Nature Communications under a Creative Commons license; typos corrected

Solar flares signify the sudden release of magnetic energy and are sources of so called space weather. The fine structures (below 500 km) of flares are rarely observed and are accessible to only a few instruments world-wide. Here we present observation of a solar flare using exceptionally high resolution images from the 1.6~m New Solar Telescope (NST) equipped with high order adaptive optics at Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO). The observation reveals the process of the flare in unprecedented detail, including the flare ribbon propagating across the sunspots, coronal rain (made of condensing plasma) streaming down along the post-flare loops, and the chromosphere's response to the impact of coronal rain, showing fine-scale brightenings at the footpoints of the falling plasma. Taking advantage of the resolving power of the NST, we measure the cross-sectional widths of flare ribbons, post-flare loops and footpoint brighenings, which generally lie in the range of 80-200 km, well below the resolution of most current instruments used for flare studies. Confining the scale of such fine structure provides an essential piece of information in modeling the energy transport mechanism of flares, which is an important issue in solar and plasma physics., Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures

Magnetic reconnection is a rapid energy release process that is believed to be responsible for flares on the Sun and stars. Nevertheless, such flare-related reconnection is mostly detected to occur in the corona, while there have been few studies concerning the reconnection in the chromosphere or photosphere. Here we present both spectroscopic and imaging observations of magnetic reconnection in the chromosphere leading to a microflare. During the flare peak time, chromospheric line profiles show significant blueshifted/redshifted components on the two sides of the flaring site, corresponding to upflows and downflows with velocities of $\pm$(70--80) km s$^{-1}$, comparable with the local Alfv\'{e}n speed as expected by the reconnection in the chromosphere. The three-dimensional nonlinear force-free field configuration further discloses twisted field lines (a flux rope) at a low altitude, cospatial with the dark threads in He I 10830 \r{A} images. The instability of the flux rope may initiate the flare-related reconnection. These observations provide clear evidence of magnetic reconnection in the chromosphere and show the similar mechanisms of a microflare to those of major flares., Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in ApJL

Jets present ubiquitously in both quiet and active regions on the Sun. They are widely believed to be driven by magnetic reconnection. A fan-spine structure has been frequently reported in some coronal jets and flares, regarded as a signature of ongoing magnetic reconnection in a topology consisting of a magnetic null connected by a fan-like separatrix surface and a spine. However, for small-scale chromospheric jets, clear evidence of such structures is rather rare, although they are implied in earlier works that show an inverted-Y-shaped feature. Here we report high-resolution (0$"$.16) observations of a small-scale chromospheric jet obtained by the New Solar Telescope (NST) using 10830~{\AA} filtergrams. Bi-directional flows were observed across the separatrix regions in the 10830~\AA{} images, suggesting that the jet was produced due to magnetic reconnection. At the base of the jet, a fan-spine structure was clearly resolved by the NST, including the spine and the fan-like surface, as well as the loops before and after the reconnection. A major part of this fan-spine structure, with the exception of its bright footpoints and part of the base arc, was invisible in the extreme ultraviolet and soft X-ray images (observed by the Atmosphere Imaging Assembly and the X-Ray Telescope, respectively), indicating that the reconnection occurred in the upper chromosphere. Our observations suggest that the evolution of this chromospheric jet is consistent with a two-step reconnection scenario proposed by \citet{Torok2009}

Solar flares are sudden flashes of brightness on the Sun and are often associated with coronal mass ejections and solar energetic particles which have adverse effects in the near Earth environment. By definition, flares are usually referred to bright features resulting from excess emission. Using the newly commissioned 1.6~m New Solar Telescope at Big Bear Solar Observatory, here we show a striking "negative" flare with a narrow, but unambiguous "dark" moving front observed in He I 10830 \AA, which is as narrow as 340 km and is associated with distinct spectral characteristics in H-alpha and Mg II lines. Theoretically, such negative contrast in He I 10830 \AA\ can be produced under special circumstances, by nonthermal-electron collisions, or photoionization followed by recombination. Our discovery, made possible due to unprecedented spatial resolution, confirms the presence of the required plasma conditions and provides unique information in understanding the energy release and radiative transfer in astronomical objects.