Coronal Microjets in Quiet-Sun Regions Observed with the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager on Board the Solar Orbiter
Zhenyong Hou, Hui Tian, David Berghmans, Hechao Chen, Luca Teriaca, Udo Schühle, Yuhang Gao, Yajie Chen, Jiansen He, Linghua Wang, Xianyong Bai
Abstract
Abstract We report the smallest coronal jets ever observed in the quiet Sun with recent high-resolution observations from the High Resolution Telescopes (HRI EUV and HRI Ly α ) of the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager on board the Solar Orbiter (SO). In the HRI EUV (174 Å) images, these microjets usually appear as nearly collimated structures with brightenings at their footpoints. Their average lifetime, projected speed, width, and maximum length are 4.6 minutes, 62 km s −1 , 1.0 Mm, and 7.7 Mm, respectively. Inverted-Y shaped structures and moving blobs can be identified in some events. A subset of these events also reveal signatures in the HRI Ly α (H i Ly α at 1216 Å) images and the extreme ultraviolet images taken by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). Our differential emission-measure (EM) analysis suggests a multithermal nature and an average density of ∼1.4 × 10 9 cm −3 for these microjets. Their thermal and kinetic energies were estimated to be ∼3.9 × 10 24 erg and ∼2.9 × 10 23 erg, respectively, which are of the same order of the released energy predicted by the nanoflare theory. Most events appear to be located at the edges of network lanes and magnetic flux concentrations, suggesting that these coronal microjets are likely generated by magnetic reconnection between small-scale magnetic loops and the adjacent network field.