The Astrophysical Journal, 696:L66–L69, 2009 May 1 doi:10.

1088/0004-637X/696/1/L66

C 2009. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.

HINODE OBSERVATION OF THE MAGNETIC FIELDS IN A SUNSPOT LIGHT BRIDGE ACCOMPANIED BY

LONG-LASTING CHROMOSPHERIC PLASMA EJECTIONS
Toshifumi Shimizu1 , Yukio Katsukawa2 , Masahito Kubo3 , Bruce W. Lites3 , Kiyoshi Ichimoto4 , Yoshinori Suematsu2 ,
Saku Tsuneta2 , Shin’ichi Nagata4 , Richard A. Shine5 , and Theodore D. Tarbell5
1 Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, 3-1-1 Yoshinodai, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 229-8510, Japan;
shimizu.toshifumi@isas.jaxa.jp
2 National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan
3 High Altitude Observatory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, P.O. Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307, USA
4 Kwasan and Hida Observatories, Kyoto University, Kamitakara-cho, Takayama, Gifu 506-1314, Japan
5 Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory, Bldg. 252, 3251 Hanover Street, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA
Received 2009 February 20; accepted 2009 March 24; published 2009 April 14

ABSTRACT
We present high-resolution magnetic field measurements of a sunspot light bridge (LB) that produced chromospheric
plasma ejections intermittently and recurrently for more than 1 day. The observations were carried out with the
Hinode Solar Optical Telescope on 2007 April 29 and 30. The spectro-polarimeter reveals obliquely oriented
magnetic fields with vertical electric current density higher than 100 mA m−2 along the LB. The observations
suggest that current-carrying highly twisted magnetic flux tubes are trapped below a cusp-shaped magnetic
structure along the LB. The presence of trapped current-carrying flux tubes is essential for causing long-
lasting chromospheric plasma ejections at the interface with pre-existing vertically oriented umbral fields. A
bidirectional jet was clearly detected, suggesting magnetic reconnections occurring at very low altitudes, slightly
above the height where the vector magnetic fields are measured. Moreover, we found another strong vertical
electric current on the interface between the current-carrying flux tube and pre-existing umbral field, which might
be a direct detection of the currents flowing in the current sheet formed at the magnetic reconnection sites.
Key words: Sun: activity – Sun: chromosphere – Sun: magnetic fields – Sun: photosphere – sunspots
Online-only material: mpeg animation

1. INTRODUCTION
Light bridges (LBs) are one of the fundamental magnetic
structures in sunspots, possibly related to fragmentation of mag-
netic flux in sunspots (Katsukawa et al. 2007). A “strong” LB
shows filamentary structure with penumbral or photospheric-
like morphological features, separating two umbral regions with
the same magnetic polarity (Sobotka et al. 1993). Magnetic
fields in LBs have lower field strength and are sparser and more
horizontal than in the neighboring umbrae (Rüedi et al. 1995;
Leka 1997). Recent high spatial resolution imaging observa-
tions show a segmented structure of LBs with a central dark
lane running along strong LBs (Berger & Berdyugina 2003)
that looks like the high point of a ridge (Lites et al. 2004). A
detailed analysis of the Stokes spectra has suggested the pres-
ence of a canopy structure above LBs (Jurĉák et al. 2006). From
these observations, the formation of LBs may be explained by
a physical mechanism commonly working in various features
in sunspots (Rimmele 2008)—field-free convection penetrates
a strong magnetic field from below the photosphere and forms
a cusplike magnetic field near the visible surface (Spruit &
Scharmer 2006).
One of the important observational aspects in LBs is that
remarkable long-lasting plasma ejections or surge activities are
observed in the chromosphere along some LBs (Roy 1973; Asai
et al. 2001; Bharti et al. 2007). Also, a constant brightness
enhancement was observed over an LB with TRACE 160 nm
ultraviolet images, implying the presence of a steady heat
source in the chromosphere (Berger & Berdyugina 2003).
Many of previous observations were explained in terms of
magnetic reconnection with newly emerging magnetic flux
(Asai et al. 2001; Bharti et al. 2007). However, precise vector
magnetic field measurements with high spatial resolution were
not available to show the magnetic field configuration along the
LBs accompanied by chromospheric ejections.
Here, we present high-resolution vector magnetic field mea-
surements of a sunspot LB in NOAA Active Region 10953. The
observations were carried out with the Solar Optical Telescope
(SOT; Tsuneta et al. 2008; Suematsu et al. 2008; Shimizu et al.
2008; Ichimoto et al. 2008) onboard the Hinode satellite (Kosugi
et al. 2007) on 2007 April 29 and 30. Imaging observations with
chromospheric lines (Ca ii H and Hα) show that plasma ejec-
tions occurred intermittently and recurrently from the LB for
a long period on April 30, whereas plasma ejections were less
frequent on April 29. In the following sections, we examine the
magnetic field data of the LB to understand why chromospheric
ejections were excited for a long period along the LB.
2. OBSERVATIONS AND DATA REDUCTION
The LB discussed in this paper was observed at the southeast
of the umbra in the well-developed leading sunspot of NOAA
Active Region 10953 (Figure 1), which was located near the
disk center (S10 E22 on April 29 and S10 E09 on April 30). The
time series of G-band images shows that the formation of the
LB started from 18 UT on April 28 and that the LB completely
separated the umbra into two sections by 4 UT on April 29. Ca ii
H imaging observations with 2 × 2 pixel summation (0.10896
arcsec) were made with G-band exposure every 60 s in a long
period on April 29 and 30.
The spectro-polarimeter (SP) obtained the full-polarization
states of line profiles of two magnetically sensitive Fe lines
at 630.15 and 630.25 nm. The fast-mapping mode was used,

L66
No. 1, 2009 MAGNETIC FIELDS OF A SUNSPOT LIGHT BRIDGE
G-band 30 April 2007 08:54:59UT
80
60
40
20
0 frequently observed, whereas the April 29 data were acquired
0 20 40 60 80
(unit: arcsec)
Figure 1. G-band picture of the well-developed sunspot in NOAA Active Region
10953. The square (11 × 11 arcsec) gives the field of view in the subsequent
figures. North is up and west is to the right.
which covers the entire sunspot with 0. 32 effective pixel
size. The spectral sampling is 21.549 mÅ pixel−1 . After the
standard calibration, we applied a Stokes inversion assuming a
Milne–Eddington atmosphere to derive magnetic field vectors
and other parameters. The 180 deg ambiguity in the azimuth
angle of magnetic field was resolved with a modified version
of the AZAM utility (Lites et al. 1995), where the azimuth
was selected to minimize spatial discontinuities in the field
orientation. The small field of view completely covering the
LB was spatially aligned with subarcsec accuracy according to
Shimizu et al. (2007).
3. RESULTS
3.1. Chromospheric Ejections
Chromospheric ejections began to occur from around 19:50
UT on April 29. They became frequent after 22 UT on April 29
and ejections were intermittently and recurrently observed in the
entire period of April 30. Several ejections were still observed
until the middle of May 1.
Figure 2 has four images showing that bright chromospheric
ejections are intermittently and recurrently launched from along
the edge of the LB. The lengths of the apparent extended
structures are 1500–3000 km, which is much smaller than the
typical length (10,000 km) of the previously reported surges
in Hα images (Roy 1973; Asai et al. 2001) where they are
seen as dark features. However, the magnetic field inclination
derived from the SP data is 166.7 deg on average at the footpoint
area of ejections, where 0 and 180 deg are the line-of-sight
directions. Assuming that the materials are ejected along the
direction extrapolated from this inclination, the actual length
of the ejections is estimated as 6500–13,000 km, which is the
typical length of the Hα surges.
Fan-shaped ejections are sometimes observed in the Ca ii H
movie (online material). A chain of ejections is launched from
L67
one end to the other end along the line. Ejections seem to be
successively launched along each of the frameworks of the fan
tracing magnetic field lines. A dark feature can be seen at the
west side of the bright footpoint enhancement. The majority
of ejections are launched from the east side of the solid line
marked in Figure 2, which is located along the east edge of the
LB (Figure 3). In contrast, only a very limited number of weak
chromospheric ejections are observed at the west side of the LB.
The apparent upward speed of ejectors can be estimated
from positional changes in the head of ejectors in succes-
sive frames (60 s cadence) giving a wide distribution of 6–
40 km s−1 . Considering the inclination of magnetic field lines
(166.7 deg), the actual upward speed may be 26–180 km s−1 .
Note that the derived values may contain large uncertainties be-
cause we traced the positional change of faint head of ejectors
with the 60 s cadence data.
3.2. Magnetic Fields and Electric Currents
Figure 3 shows the magnetic field vectors derived from the SP
measurements for the 2 days; the April 30 data were acquired
during the period when series of chromospheric ejections were
about 4 hr before starting chromospheric ejections. The data
show that a highly inclined magnetic field is newly formed
along the LB on April 30. The inclination is 120–140 deg on the
local frame coordinate, where 90 and 180 deg are horizontal and
vertical to the solar surface, respectively. The magnetic strength
is 700-1700 G, which is much lower than in the umbral cores
(2000 G or higher). A lower field strength is formed along the
LB on April 29, but with no highly inclined field.
A remarkable feature is the significant enhancement of the
vertical component of the electric current density along the LB
on April 30. The vertical current density Jz was computed from
the inferred values of the horizontal field components Bx and
By : μ0 Jz = (∇ × B)z = ∂By /∂x − ∂Bx /∂y, where μ0 is the
magnetic permeability. Large positive values (60–175 mA m−2 ,
red in Figure 3) are observed in line along the LB (4 arcsec long,
1 arcsec wide). The current enhancement is located almost in
the middle, not at the edge, of the LB where the magnetic fields
are directed toward the southwest direction with 120–140 deg
inclination. Positive values mean that the direction of the electric
current is upward from the surface. Assuming a field-aligned
current which flows along a magnetic flux tube lying along the
LB, the magnitude of the field-aligned current is estimated to
be 80–220 mA m−2 . The existence of field-aligned current is
equivalent to twisted fields along the tube. Moreover, another
strong enhancement patch with opposite current direction (100–
220 mA m−2 in 2 × 1 arcsec) was observed exactly on the
interface between the inclined magnetic field and pre-existing
vertically oriented umbral field. Note that the umbra is slightly
twisted clockwise, producing negative vertical currents with
10–20 mA m−2 .
3.3. Chromospheric Ejections and Photospheric Downflow
The strong current patch with the negative sign is located at
the site where several chromospheric ejections were launched
after 8:40 UT on April 30. A small patch of downflow was also
detected with the SP inside the strong current patch during a
scan between 8:56 to 8:59 UT. The left panel in Figure 4 shows
the spatial distribution of the line-of-sight (Doppler) velocity
field. The peak velocity is +0.73 km s−1 , when the average
of the velocities over the field of view is used as the zero
velocity. The positive value is a red shift, indicating downward
L68 SHIMIZU ET AL. Vol. 696

29 April 2007 30 April 2007 (unit: arcsec)

15:50:59 04:55:59 06:43:53 07:23:54 08:56:55
10 10 10 10 10

8 8 8 8 8

6 6 6 6 6

4 4 4 4 4

2 2 2 2 2

0 0 0 0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10

Figure 2. Examples of chromospheric ejections detected with Ca ii H imaging observations on 2007 April 30. The image on April 29 shows the chromospheric view
before starting recurrent ejections. The solid line on the 08:56:55 UT frame gives the location of the right edge of ejection footpoints.
(An mpeg animation of this figure is available in the online journal.)

30 Apr 2007 8:56-8:59UT

G-band: 8:58:00 Vector (Bx, By) on Bz = 1000 Jz
10 10

8 8

6 6

4 4

2 2

0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10

-2500 -1000 0 -100 -50 0 50 100

(G) (mA/m2)
29 Apr 2007 15:37-15:39UT
G-band: 15:40:01 Vector (Bx, By) on Bz = 1000 Jz
10 10

8 8

6 6

4 4

2 2

0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10
Figure 3. Spatial distribution of magnetic field vectors and vertical electrical current density (Jz ) on a sunspot LB on April 30 and April 29. On the field vector map,
the arrows show the horizontal component (Bx , By ) of magnetic fields with the gray scale for the field strength of the vertical component (Bz ). The left images are
G-band intensity. See Figure 2 for the solid line given on the April 30 data.

motion toward the photosphere. Ca ii H images acquired in
this period show a chromospheric ejection launched from the
location where the downflow patch was detected. This can be
interpreted as a bidirectional jet wherein the downflow patch
detected with the SP measurement is the downward component
and the chromospheric ejection seen in Ca ii H images is the
upward component.
3.4. Long-Term Morphological Evolution of the Light Bridge
The time series of G-band images from April 28 through
May 3 shows how filamentary magnetic structures formed and
evolved along the LB. The LB formation began 18 UT on
April 28 with the appearance of many bright grains. Bright
filamentary structures became visible along the LB on April 30
after umbral-side footpoints of penumbral filaments slowly
moved into the umbra from the penumbra at the north side.
From the G-band morphology, the filaments appear to be trapped
below a cusp-shaped magnetic structure along the LB. A strong
unidirectional flow is also observed from northeast to southwest
along the LB. The flow speed is 500–700 m s−1 from local
correlation tracking of features in the LB (Louis et al. 2008).
Another remarkable development is that the LB, or the
filamentary structure, suddenly disappeared around 0 UT on
May 2. It again became fully or partially visible along its
previous length from 2–3:30 UT and finally it completely
disappeared again by 5 UT. From the time series of G-band
images, it looked as if the filament escaped upward through the
strong umbral fields. No filamentary structure was visible in
the southeast area of the umbra and only umbral structure was
observed until 6 UT the next day (May 3).
No. 1, 2009 MAGNETIC FIELDS OF A SUNSPOT LIGHT BRIDGE L69

Spectro-Polarimeter 30 April 2007

Scan period: 8:56-8:59 Ca II H
Doppler velocity Jz 08:57:56
10 10 10

8 8 8

6 6 6

4 4 4

2 2 2

0 0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10
(unit: arcsec)
-1 0 +1 -100 -50 0 50 100
(km/sec) (mA/m2)
Figure 4. Line-of-sight velocity and vertical electrical current density (Jz ) derived from the SP data. The SP data in the field of view were obtained in 8:56–8:59 UT
on April 30. Ca ii H images acquired in this period show a chromospheric ejection from the location where a downflow patch was detected in the light-of-velocity
map. The positive values are redshifted velocity, i.e., downward motion toward the photosphere. See Figure 2 for the solid line.

4. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS on the interface between the current-carrying flux tube and the
pre-existing umbral field might be a direct detection of currents
These observations suggest that current-carrying magnetic flowing in the current sheet formed at the magnetic reconnection
flux tubes are trapped below a cusp-shaped magnetic structure sites.
along the LB. Filamentary structures seen in the G band also
indicate highly inclined fields along the LB. The force-free T.S. thanks K. D. Leka, J. Chae, and K. Shibata for fruitful
parameter α ≡ μ0 Jz /Bz , which describes the degree of twist discussions during the second Hinode science meeting at Boul-
if the field is force free, is derived to be 0.5–2.0 Mm−1 in der. Hinode is a Japanese mission developed and launched by
the area with large positive current enhancement. The pitch of ISAS/JAXA, with NAOJ as domestic partner and NASA and
the magnetic field lines in the twisted flux tube (defined as STFC (UK) as international partners. It is operated by these
≈ L/(4π/α)) is 0.2–0.9 for the full 8 arcsec length (L) of the agencies in cooperation with ESA and NSC (Norway).
LB. This is one of the largest values of α ever observed in
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