NVST observations of collision-induced apparent fan-shaped jets

Using high-quality H α observations from the New Vacuum Solar Telescope, we first report apparent fan-shaped jets (AFJs) generated during the interaction between primary fan-shaped jets (FJs) and nearby facula magnetic structure. The primary FJs were intermittently launched from a sunspot penumbra with negative-polarity magnetic fields in active region 12740 on 2019 May 6, accompanied by impulsive brightenings at the base. While the propagating FJ encountered and collided with the negative-polarity magnetic structure of the west facula, the density of jet material was enhanced to the east of the facula. Meanwhile, the jet structures exhibited a deflection towards the north-west at the jet–facula collision location. Then the primary FJ evolved into two parts, with one part being reflected away from the facula and the other part forming an AFJ. Easily distinguished from the primary FJ, the ejecting AFJ was more ordered and had an apparent end at the facula. The AFJ was impulsively accelerated to speeds of 100 km s⁻¹, and reached lengths of up to 40 Mm. The observed AFJ had a similar morphology to the fan-shaped quasi-separatrix layer (QSL) between the penumbra and facula magnetic systems, implying that the material of the AFJ was mainly guided by the fan plane of the QSL. We suggest that the collision does not cause a change in the field-line connectivity and only leads to the redistribution of jet material.