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.
A flare chain reaction
Credit: IRIS, LMSAL/NASA, Roy T. Smart
In this movie we see a really nice example of how an initial, smaller flare can start a chain reaction that leads to a larger flare. About three seconds into this movie, we can see that the initial flare destabilizes the delicate tension of the surrounding magnetic field which then violently unravels, leading to an eruption and an avalanche of more powerful flares.