Evidence for the Flare Trigger Site and Three-Dimensional Reconnection in Multiwavelength Observations of a Solar Flare

One of the first cartoon renditions of the "spine and fan" reconnection morphology, the most attractive theoretical description as we lurch into the third dimension here. Why had it taken so long, since a 1948 cartoon had so clearly pointed the way? The "spine" is the unique field line linked to a pair of magnetic-field nulls, the generalization of the X-point in the old-fashioned 2-D or 2.5-D view of magnetic reconnection - superseded, yes; obsolete, yes, but still gospel in some circles (at the time of update here, the Cairns cartoon was the most recent 2D effort). Numerical simulations in 2D, for special purposes, certainly happen and are possibly useful).