Signatures of reconnection in eruptive flares

Solar flares are defined by magnetism. The energy that is stored up, transferred, and released is done so in and by the magnetic fields of the Sun; the structures in which the flares occur are wholly dependent on the configuration of magnetic connections; and it is the rearrangement of these connections that we believe plays such a large and important role in many of the processes observed in flares. Many of our theoretical pictures of flare mechanisms rely in some part on magnetic reconnection, and one by one the observable signatures of these models are being uncovered in chromospheric and coronal data. These data, in turn, introduce observational constraints that help to drive the models. I will summarize some key observations that have helped to support the case for reconnection, and that have helped us to peer more deeply into the behavior of coronal plasmas and magnetic fields.