Ellerman bombs are transient brightenings of the wings of the solar Balmer lines that mark reconnection in the photosphere. Ellerman noted in 1917 that he did not observe such brightenings in the Na I D and Mg I b lines. This non-visibility should constrain EB interpretation, but has not been addressed in published bomb modeling. We therefore test Ellerman's observation and confirm it using high-quality imaging spectrometry with the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope. However, we find diffuse brightness in these lines that seems to result from prior EBs. We tentatively suggest this is a post-bomb hot-cloud phenomenon also found in recent EB spectroscopy in the ultraviolet.
@article{arxiv.1506.04426,
title = {Ellerman bombs at high resolution. IV. Visibility in Na I and Mg I},
author = {R. J. Rutten and L. H. M. Rouppe van der Voort and G. J. M. Vissers},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1506.04426},
year = {2016}
}