CHROMOSPHERIC POLARITY REVERSALS ON SUNSPOTS - ARE THEY CONSISTENT WITH WEAK LINE EMISSION

Photospheric and chromospheric solar magnetograms sometimes show oppos ite polarity. This intriguing phenomenon is associated with the emerge nce of magnetic flux and with nearby, but not necessarily superposed, flaring activity. Despite the fact that there may be different explana tions, it is shown here that the observed reversals are consistent wit h weak flare-like line emission all over the reversed polarity regions . Although this emission does not show up as a flare in filtergrams, i t exhibits itself as a polarity reversal of the chromospheric magnetog rams. If this interpretation were correct, the reversal would not corr espond to a real flip of the magnetic field direction from the photosp here to the chromosphere. It would be an artifact due to radiative tra nsfer effects. Observations to support or discard this hypothesis are briefly pointed out.