Evidence of Flaring in a Transequatorial Loop on the Sun

We present evidence of flaring behavior in a transequatorial loop (TEL) that lights up in soft X-rays on 2000 July 13. The large loop structure connects NOAA Active Regions 9070/9066 in the northern hemisphere and AR 9069/9068 in the southern hemisphere. We follow the loop systems for 2 days and observe several pieces of evidence strongly suggesting flare behavior of the form seen in standard flaring in active regions. These include brightenings of the loop structure, cooling of plasma that is seen both in soft X-rays and in the transition region temperatures, morphological evidence of reconnection inflow, and blueshifts around the footpoint of the TEL suggestive of chromospheric evaporation. We present, to our knowledge for the first time, observations of TEL in the O V emission line.