Solar active regions host a multitude of dynamic phenomena on various scales. The evolution of young active regions in particular is guided by the emergence of strong magnetic flux and continuous reorganisation of the fields through magnetic reconnection. Ellerman bombs are short-lived, fine-structured, bright events that are thought to pinpoint locations of such reconnection in the lower atmosphere. They are not only of interest from the perspective of active region evolution tracking, but also because they represent pockets of hot gas in otherwise relatively cool parts of the solar atmosphere.
I’ll discuss the current view on Ellerman bombs that is painted by ground- and space-based observations, as well as numerical studies, and present new insights from co-observations between the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope and NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph.