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.
Two-Ribbon Flare from AR 12765
Credit: IRIS, LMSAL/NASA, Jacob Parker
During this 2 hour long observation of AR 12765 IRIS was able to catch a smaller B class flare at 21:43 UT on June 7th, 2020. The active region has many small energetic events during the hour leading up the the flare that nicely trace out an array of magnetic loops. This eventually leads to the flare after which two bright ribbons of intensity (flare ribbons) trace out the foot points of those same loops as high energy plasma impacts the lower solar atmosphere. Also, the flare sends energetic plasma flowing along other nearby magnetic loops clearly outlining the magnetic connectivity to adjacent patches of sun.