Ye. Litvinenko et Sf. Martin, Magnetic reconnection as the cause of a photospheric canceling feature andmass flows in a filament, SOLAR PHYS, 190(1-2), 1999, pp. 45-58
Magnetic reconnection in the temperature minimum region of the solar photos
phere can account for the canceling magnetic features on the Sun. Litvinenk
o (1999a) showed that a reconnection model explains the quiet-Sun features
with the magnetic flux cancelation rate of order 10(17) Mx hr(-1). In this
paper the model is applied to cancelation in solar active regions, which is
characterized by a much larger rate of cancelation greater than or equal t
o 10(19) Mx hr(-1). In particular, the evolution of a photospheric cancelin
g feature observed in an active region on July 2, 1994 is studied. The theo
retical predictions are demonstrated to be in reasonable agreement with the
measured speed of approaching magnetic fragments, the magnetic field in th
e fragments, and the flux cancelation rate, deduced from the combined Big B
ear H alpha time-lapse images and videomagnetograms calibrated against the
daily NSO/Kitt Peak magnetogram. Of particular interest is the prediction t
hat photospheric reconnection should lead to a significant upward mass flux
and the formation of a solar filament. H alpha observations indeed showed
a filament that had one of its ends spatially superposed with the canceling
feature.