IRIS Movie of the Day
At least once a week a movie of the Sun taken by NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) is posted by one of the scientists operating the instrument.
Pre-flare brightenings lead to M-class flare
Credit: IRIS, LMSAL/NASA, Paul Bryans
In this IRIS observation of an M-class flare, we see lots of brightenings in the hours preceding the flare. As energy builds in the active region it eventually leads to the explosive event seen near the mid-point of the movie.