Explosive Events in the Quiet Sun Near and Beyond the Solar Limb Observed with the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS)

We study point-like explosive events (EE), characterized by emission in the far wings of spectral lines, in a quiet region near the South Pole, using Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) spectra at two slit positions, slit-jaw (SJ) observations, and Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) images. The events were best visible in Si iv spectra; they were weak in SJs, occasionally visible in 1600 Å and 304 Å AIA images, and invisible in higher temperature AIA images. We identified EEs from position–time images in the far wings of the Si iv lines and measured their distance from the limb. A Gaussian model of the height distribution showed that EEs occur in a narrow (0.9^′′) height range, centered at 3.2^′′ above the continuum limb at 2832.0 Å. On the disk, we found that they occur in network boundaries. Further, we studied the line profiles of two bright EEs above the limb and one on the disk. We found that what appears as broad-band emission is actually a superposition of 2 – 3 narrow-band Gaussian components with well-separated line profiles, indicating that material is expelled towards and/or away from the observer in discrete episodes in time and in space. The expelled plasma accelerates quickly, reaching line-of-sight (LOS) velocities up to 90 km s⁻¹. Overall, the motion was practically along the LOS, as the velocity on the plane of the sky was small. In some cases, tilted spectra were observed that could be interpreted in terms of rotating motions of up to 30 km s⁻¹. We did not find any strong absorption features in the wing of the Si iv lines, although in one case, a very weak absorption feature was detected. No motions indicative of jets were detected in SJ or AIA images. Reconnection in an asymmetric magnetic-field geometry, in the middle or near the top of small loops, is a plausible explanation of their observational characteristics.