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.
Circular-ribbon flare in AR14560
Credit: IRIS, LMSAL/NASA, Milan Gosic (LMSAL/SETI)
On October 25, 2026, IRIS observed a circular-ribbon flare in active region AR14560. Circular-ribbon flares are flares whose ribbon emission traces a circular fan-spine topology around a null point, which is a point where the magnetic field vanishes, often acting as a preferred site of reconnection. In such a topology, particles accelerated at the reconnection site travel along fan field lines, producing the circular ribbon.