Seven different models are applied to the same problem of simulating the Sun's coronal magnetic field during the solar eclipse on 2015 March 20. All of the models are non-potential, allowing for free magnetic energy, but the associated electric currents are developed in significantly different ways. This is not a direct comparison of the coronal modelling techniques, in that the different models also use different photospheric boundary conditions, reflecting the range of approaches currently used in the community. Despite the significant differences, the results show broad agreement in the overall magnetic topology. Among those models with significant volume currents in much of the corona, there is general agreement that the ratio of total to potential magnetic energy should be approximately 1.4. However, there are significant differences in the electric current distributions; while static extrapolations are best able to reproduce active regions, they are unable to recover sheared magnetic fields in filament channels using currently available vector magnetogram data. By contrast, time-evolving simulations can recover the filament channel fields at the expense of not matching the observed vector magnetic fields within active regions. We suggest that, at present, the best approach may be a hybrid model using static extrapolations but with additional energization informed by simplified evolution models. This is demonstrated by one of the models.

The second Hi-C flight (Hi-C2.1) provided unprecedentedly-high spatial and temporal resolution (∼250km, 4.4s) coronal EUV images of Fe IX/X emission at 172Å, of AR 12712 on 29-May-2018, during 18:56:21-19:01:56 UT. Three morphologically-different types (I: dot-like, II: loop-like, III: surge/jetlike) of fine-scale sudden-brightening events (tiny microflares) are seen within and at the ends of an arch filament system in the core of the AR. Although type Is (not reported before) resemble IRIS-bombs (in size, and brightness wrt surroundings), our dot-like events are apparently much hotter, and shorter in span (70s). We complement the 5-minute-duration Hi-C2.1 data with SDO/HMI magnetograms, SDO/AIA EUV images, and IRIS UV spectra and slit-jaw images to examine, at the sites of these events, brightenings and flows in the transition-region and corona and evolution of magnetic flux in the photosphere. Most, if not all, of the events are seated at sites of opposite-polarity magnetic flux convergence (sometimes driven by adjacent flux emergence), implying likely flux cancellation at the microflare's polarity inversion line. In the IRIS spectra and images, we find confirming evidence of field-aligned outflow from brightenings at the ends of loops of the arch filament system. In types I and II the explosion is confined, while in type III the explosion is ejective and drives jet-like outflow. The light-curves from Hi-C, AIA and IRIS peak nearly simultaneously for many of these events and none of the events display a systematic cooling sequence as seen in typical coronal flares, suggesting that these tiny brightening-events have chromospheric/transition-region origin.

We present high-resolution, high-cadence observations of six, fine-scale, on-disk jet-like events observed by the High-resolution Coronal Imager 2.1 (Hi-C 2.1) during its sounding-rocket flight. We combine the Hi-C 2.1 images with images from SDO/AIA, and IRIS, and investigate each event's magnetic setting with co-aligned line-of-sight magnetograms from SDO/HMI. We find that: (i) all six events are jetlet-like (having apparent properties of jetlets), (ii) all six are rooted at edges of magnetic network lanes, (iii) four of the jetlet-like events stem from sites of flux cancelation between majority-polarity network flux and merging minority-polarity flux, and (iv) four of the jetlet-like events show brightenings at their bases reminiscent of the base brightenings in coronal jets. The average spire length of the six jetlet-like events (9,000±3000km) is three times shorter than that for IRIS jetlets (27,000±8000km). While not ruling out other generation mechanisms, the observations suggest that at least four of these events may be miniature versions of both larger-scale coronal jets that are driven by minifilament eruptions and still-larger-scale solar eruptions that are driven by filament eruptions. Therefore, we propose that our Hi-C events are driven by the eruption of a tiny sheared-field flux rope, and that the flux-rope field is built and triggered to erupt by flux cancelation.

The third flight of the High-Resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C 2.1) occurred on May 29, 2018; the Sounding Rocket was launched from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The instrument has been modified from its original configuration (Hi-C 1) to observe the solar corona in a passband that peaks near 172 Å, and uses a new, custom-built low-noise camera. The instrument targeted Active Region 12712, and captured 78 images at a cadence of 4.4 s (18:56:22-19:01:57 UT; 5 min and 35 s observing time). The image spatial resolution varies due to quasi-periodic motion blur from the rocket; sharp images contain resolved features of at least 0.47 arcsec. There are coordinated observations from multiple ground-and space-based telescopes providing an unprecedented opportunity to observe the mass and energy coupling between the chromosphere and the corona. Details of the instrument and the data set are presented in this paper.

Plasma outflows from the edges of active regions have been suggested as a possible source of the slow solar wind. Spectroscopic measurements show that these outflows have an enhanced elemental composition, which is a distinct signature of the slow wind. Current spectroscopic observations, however, do not have sufficient spatial resolution to distinguish what structures are being measured or determine the driver of the outflows. The High-resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C) flew on a sounding rocket in 2018 May and observed areas of active region outflow at the highest spatial resolution ever achieved (250 km). Here we use the Hi-C data to disentangle the outflow composition signatures observed with the Hinode satellite during the flight. We show that there are two components to the outflow emission: a substantial contribution from expanded plasma that appears to have been expelled from closed loops in the active region core and a second contribution from dynamic activity in active region plage, with a composition signature that reflects solar photospheric abundances. The two competing drivers of the outflows may explain the variable composition of the slow solar wind.