Sun  ID: 4766

IRIS views Nano-Flares on the Sun

Visualizations by Tom Bridgman Released on September 21, 2020
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Opening full-disk solar view from AIA 304 angstroms, zooming in and fading in IRIS SJI at 1400 angstroms.
Nanoflares, energy releases powered by small magnetic reconnection events in the solar coronal loops, have long been hypothesized as one of the sources for heating the solar corona to million-degree temperatures. Much of the evidence for this has been indirect, and difficult to distinguish from other hypothesized mechanisms.

In these visualizations, we present observational evidence of the IRIS imager detecting nanoflares in a coronal loop. In the IRIS imager, overlaid on AIA 304 angstrom imagery, the events stand out as jet-like protrusions roughly perpendicular to the curve of the coronal loop.

In this data, we see several strong nano-flare events near the 14:43 timestamp.
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Opening full-disk solar view from AIA 171 angstroms, zooming in (but not showing) on the IRIS SJI field-of-view.
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Opening full-disk solar view from AIA 304 angstroms, zooming in (but not showing) on the IRIS SJI field-of-view.
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Opening close-up solar view from of SDO/AIA 304 angstroms with an inset of IRIS SJI 1400 angstroms. Camera slides to the right (making the inset slide to the left). These were source frames for some special composites and included here in case others may find them useful.
 

Used Elsewhere In

NASA’s IRIS spots Nanojets: Shining light on heating the solar corona

Visualization Credits

Tom Bridgman (GST): Lead Visualizer
Patrick Antolin (Northumbria University): Scientist
Joy Ng (USRA): Lead Producer
Laurence Schuler (ADNET): Technical Support
Ian Jones (ADNET): Technical Support
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

Science Paper:
Reconnection Nanojets in the Solar Corona

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4766

Missions:
IRIS: Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph
SDO

Data Used:
SDO/AIA/304 Filter also referred to as: AIA 304
JOINT SCIENCE OPERATIONS CENTER - 2014-04-03T12:34UT - 2014-04-03T14:53UT
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SDO/AIA/171 Filter also referred to as: AIA 171
JOINT SCIENCE OPERATIONS CENTER - 2014-04-03T12:34UT - 2014-04-03T14:53UT
view all stories where this data set is used
IRIS/Imager/SJI also referred to as: Slit-Jaw Imager
Observed Data - LMSAL - 2014-04-03T13:16UT - 2014-04-03T14:53UT
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Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.

Keywords:
SVS >> Coronal Loop
SVS >> Hyperwall
SVS >> Ultraviolet Imagery
NASA Science >> Sun
SVS >> Nanoflare
SVS >> Far Ultraviolet Imaging