Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental process occurring in a wide range of astrophysical, heliospheric and laboratory plasmas. This process alters magnetic topology and triggers rapid conversion of magnetic energy into thermal heating and nonthermal particle acceleration. Efforts to understand the physics of magnetic reconnection have been made across multiple disciplines using remote observations of solar flares and in-situ measurements of geomagnetic storms and substorms as well as laboratory and numerical experiments. This review focuses on the progress achieved with solar flare observations in which most reconnection-related signatures could be resolved in both space and time. The emphasis is on various observable emission features in the low solar atmosphere which manifest the coronal magnetic reconnection because these two regions are magnetically connected to each other. The research and application perspectives of solar magnetic reconnection are briefly discussed and compared with those in other plasma environments.

1. INTRODUCTION
 2. BASIC THEORETICAL ELEMENTS
 3. SOLAR MAGNETIC RECONNECTION
  3.1 Coronal Reconnection Rate and Hard X-ray lightcurves
  3.2 Parallel Component of Footpoint Motions
  3.3 Spatio-temporal Properties of Flare Ribbons
  3.4 Implications of Elementary Magnetic Reconnection
  3.5 Area of Reconnecting Current Sheet
  3.6. The Ribbon-like Hard X-Ray Emission
  3.7. Electric Field and Hard X-Ray Spectral Index
  3.8. Visibility of the Current Sheet
 4. CONCLUDING REMARKS
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
 REFERENCES

• Jeongwoo Lee(Center for Solar and Terrestrial Research, New Jersey Institute of Technology) Corresponding Author