Multiwavelength observations of small-scale reconnection events triggered by magnetic flux emergence in the solar atmosphere

The interaction between emerging magnetic flux and the pre-existing ambient field has become a "hot" topic for both numerical simulations and high-resolution observations of the solar atmosphere. The appearance of brightenings and surges during episodes of flux emergence is believed to be a signature of magnetic reconnection processes. We present an analysis of a small-scale flux emergence event in NOAA 10971, observed simultaneously with the Swedish 1 m Solar Telescope on La Palma and the Hinode satellite during a joint campaign in 2007 September. Extremely high-resolution G-band, Hα, and Ca ii H filtergrams, Fe i and Na i magnetograms, EUV raster scans, and X-ray images show that the emerging region was associated with chromospheric, transition region and coronal brightenings, as well as with chromospheric surges. We suggest that these features were caused by magnetic reconnection at low altitude in the atmosphere. To support this idea, we perform potential and linear force-free field extrapolations using the FROMAGE service. The extrapolations show that the emergence site is cospatial with a three-dimensional null point, from which a spine originates. This magnetic configuration and the overall orientation of the field lines above the emerging flux region are compatible with the structures observed in the different atmospheric layers and remain stable against variations of the force-free field parameter. Our analysis supports the predictions of recent three-dimensional numerical simulations that energetic phenomena may result from the interaction between emerging flux and the pre-existing chromospheric and coronal field.