Authors: Anneliese Schmidt (NJIT), Vasyl Yurchyshyn (NJIT), Xu Yang (NJIT)

Theories on the origin and mechanisms of small scale jets, and jet-like features in the solar chromosphere have been widely discussed and debated. Investigating the chromospheric roots of type-II spicules and their on-disk counterparts, rapid blue-shifted (RBEs) and rapid red-shifted (RREs) excursions, is critical to understanding these mechanisms. A statistical study of the absorption and emission of small-scale chromospheric brightenings was conducted to see the connection between intensity variations of brightenings and jet-like events to determine if RREs and RBEs could be a result of energy release in the chromosphere. High-resolution H-alpha observations were utilized for this study from the Goode Solar Telescope (GST) under quiet sun conditions. Photospheric TiO observations were used as a reference for the red and blue-shifted H-alpha measurements used in the analysis, and to validate that the chromospheric enhancements were not due to photospheric leaking. Statistics of the correlations of light curves from areas with chromospheric brightenings compared to the co-spatial areas in the photosphere were used as indicators of areas of interest. Multiple case studies where chromospheric intensities incongruently fluctuated with photospheric activity were detected at the footpoints of jets and jet-like features are presented and were used as the motivation for this statistical study.