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.
X6.4 Flare Associated with a Filament Eruption
Credit: IRIS, LMSAL/NASA, Georgios Chintzoglou
This IRIS observation (2024/02/22 22:44 UT) targeted an extremely flare-productive NOAA Active Region 13590. It shows the central part of the active region as it appears in Near-Ultraviolet (NUV) produced by singly ionized Magnesium (Mg II k) in the solar chromosphere. In that light we can see two sunspots (upper right and left) and a chromospheric filament (horizontally-oriented dark threads of cool chromospheric plasma suspended above the solar surface). This movie caught the moment when the chromospheric filament became unstable and erupted; see the filament moving towards the bottom of the field of view, as it lifts and disappears. At the same time, strong brightenings appear to develop (called "ribbons") just under the filament as a result of a solar flare developing as the filament was erupting. This eruption was associated with the strongest solar flare of the current Solar Cycle, classified as X6.4.