A spectropolarimetric study of Ellerman bombs

We have studied four 10 to 40 minute sets of Ha spectropolarimetric observations of five Ellerman bombs (a total of 241 spectropolarimetric recordings) selected from data for more than 200 Ellerman bombs obtained with the Large Solar Vacuum Telescope at the Baikal Astrophysical Observatory. The degree of polarization P and azimuth of the plane of polarization were derived from quasi-simultaneous observations of the Stokes parameters Q/I and U/I. We interpret the observed linear polarization as impact polarization. A method for comparing the polarization parameters of Ellerman bombs observed at different times and distances from the center of the solar disk is suggested, which can be used to relate variations of the polarimetric parameters with the lifetimes of Ellerman bombs. A comparison between the observations and theoretical calculations indicates that the observed Ellerman bombs were due to electron beams with energies of several hundred keV. (C) 2002 MAIK "Nauka/Interperiodica".