Recent Progress in Understanding Solar Magnetic Reconnection

Abstract

Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental process occurring in a wide range of astrophysical, heliospheric and laboratory plasmas. This process alters magnetic topology and triggers rapid conversion of magnetic energy into thermal heating and nonthermal particle acceleration. Efforts to understand the physics of magnetic reconnection have been made across multiple disciplines using remote observations of solar flares and in-situ measurements of geomagnetic storms and substorms as well as laboratory and numerical experiments. This review focuses on the progress achieved with solar flare observations in which most reconnection-related signatures could be resolved in both space and time. The emphasis is on various observable emission features in the low solar atmosphere which manifest the coronal magnetic reconnection because these two regions are magnetically connected to each other. The research and application perspectives of solar magnetic reconnection are briefly discussed and compared with those in other plasma environments.