Evidence for non-potential magnetic fields in the quiet Sun

A comparison of BBSO H alpha centerline filtergrams and videomagnetograms w as made to investigate the existence of non-potential magnetic fields in th e quiet Sun near magnetic network. We use the fibril structure in the Hoc i mages as a proxy for the horizontal chromospheric magnetic field which we c ompare with the horizontal field obtained by potential extrapolation of the observed, line-of-sight photospheric field. The quiet-Sun field was found to be consistently and significantly non-potential in each of the three fie lds of view studied. A transient extreme ultraviolet (EUV) brightening, kno wn as a blinker, occurred during the observations of a region where the fie ld is highly non-potential, suggesting a connection between magnetic reconn ection and non-potentiality.