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.
An intensive flare on 2023 September 20
Credit: IRIS, LMSAL/NASA, Chunming Zhu
Solar flare is a sudden brightening in the solar atmosphere, corresponding to the release of intense magnetic energy stored in the corona. A strong (M8.2 level) but brief brightening happened on the Sun on 2023 Sep. 20. It began at around 14:11 UT and was located in an active region numbered 13435. IRIS spacecraft had its slit scanning through this active region, thus capturing the flare ribbons in the images and scanning the remote brightening region associated with the major flare. Such observations will help us understand the intense energy release process on the Sun.