Abstract:
The solar atmosphere contains a wide variety of transient features. Here, we discuss a high spectral resolution data set from the Solar Ultraviolet Measurements of Emitted Radiation (SUMER) instrument on board the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SoHO) spacecraft that suggests a linkage between two widely studied features, namely those called 'transition region explosive events (TREEs)' and 'blinkers'. In the TREEs examined, we see clear evidence of bi-directional jets. The light curve, however, is reminiscent of blinkers. Using a blinker identification procedure, we identify blinkers in the light curve of the TREE observed by SUMER in the spectral line OV 629.73 Å. A comparison of original line profiles and those degraded to the spectral resolution of the Coronal Diagnostic Spectrometer (CDS) instrument, also on SoHO, suggests that many events showing the characteristics of TREEs would be misidentified as blinkers showing a line-shift using CDS data. We conclude that the division of different transient events into a number of different subgroups, namely TREEs and blinkers, is unnecessary, having produced evidence to show that TREEs and blinkers are a manifestation of the same physical process.

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