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SCIENTIFIC RATIONALE: The highly inhomogeneous appearance of the quiet Sun is characterized by a rich diversity of fine-scale dynamic structures which have profound effects on the mass and energy flow to the outer solar atmosphere. The principal inhomogeneities are related to roughly cellular patterns that constitute the "network", which is best observed in chromospheric lines and persists throughout the chromosphere-corona transition region and the low corona. The most prominent features residing at the chromospheric network boundaries are mottles and spicules, which are short-lived dynamic events. Over the past decade, apart from the well-known spicules, many complicated and dynamic fine structures have been discovered in association with the network boundaries, like explosive events, blinkers, network flares, upflow events, Hα-1A jets. However, their interpretation, inter-relationship and their relation to the underlying photospheric magnetic concentrations remain ambiguous, because the same feature has a different appearance when observed in different spectral lines. For most of the events mentioned above, magnetic reconnection has been suggested as the driving mechanism (Innes et al. 1997, Chae et al.1998, Wilhelm 2000) just like for spicules (Tziotziou et al. 2003). Magnetic reconnection, is probably the most suitable mechanism not only for releasing energy with important implications for the heating of the chromosphere and corona, but also for the transfer of cool gas from the chromosphere to the corona and the solar wind (Tsiropoula and Tziotziou, 2004). The aim of the proposed observations is the comprehension of the dynamical behaviour of mottles/spicules and other fine-scale structures, their association with the magnetic field and their interrelationship, using multiwavelength observations both from the ground and space. These studies are crucial to understanding the dynamics of the solar atmosphere, as well as the role such structures play in the mass balance and heating of the overlying solar atmosphere. |
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