@article{YanXueJiangetal.2022,
  author    = {Yan, Xiaoli and Xue, Zhike and Jiang, Chaowei and Priest, E. R. and Kliem, Bernhard and Yang, Liheng and Wang, Jincheng and Kong, Defang and Song, Yongliang and Feng, Xueshang and Liu, Zhong},
  title     = {Fast plasmoid-mediated reconnection in a solar flare},
  series = {Nature Communications},
  volume    = {13},
  journal   = {Nature Communications},
  number    = {1},
  publisher = {Nature Publishing Group UK},
  address   = {London},
  issn      = {2041-1723},
  doi       = {10.1038/s41467-022-28269-w},
  pages     = {14},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {Magnetic reconnection is a multi-faceted process of energy conversion in astrophysical, space and laboratory plasmas that operates at microscopic scales but has macroscopic drivers and consequences. Solar flares present a key laboratory for its study, leaving imprints of the microscopic physics in radiation spectra and allowing the macroscopic evolution to be imaged, yet a full observational characterization remains elusive. Here we combine high resolution imaging and spectral observations of a confined solar flare at multiple wavelengths with data-constrained magnetohydrodynamic modeling to study the dynamics of the flare plasma from the current sheet to the plasmoid scale. The analysis suggests that the flare resulted from the interaction of a twisted magnetic flux rope surrounding a filament with nearby magnetic loops whose feet are anchored in chromospheric fibrils. Bright cusp-shaped structures represent the region around a reconnecting separator or quasi-separator (hyperbolic flux tube). The fast reconnection, which is relevant for other astrophysical environments, revealed plasmoids in the current sheet and separatrices and associated unresolved turbulent motions. Solar flares provide wide range of observational details about fundamental processes involved. Here, the authors show evidence for magnetic reconnection in a strong confined solar flare displaying all four reconnection flows with plasmoids in the current sheet and the separatrices.},
  language  = {en}
}