Book Description

Since its launch in 2013, IRIS has observed more than 10 X-class, over 100 M-class and more than 600 C-class flares at unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. Thanks to the rich diagnostics that cover the physical conditions of the solar atmosphere from the photosphere to the hottest parts of the flaring corona, IRIS observations have provided exciting new results and constraints on flare heating models, significantly expanding our knowledge of how flares are triggered, and how the non-thermal energy is released, propagates downward from the corona, and is deposited in the low atmosphere. At the same time, the new discoveries provided by IRIS have raised new unresolved questions and new challenges for theoretical models. For instance, current hydrodynamic models still cannot fully explain many features observed by IRIS during both the impulsive and gradual phases such as the dynamics of the evaporative/condensation flows, the large line broadenings, and the puzzling complex and broad chromospheric lines. In addition, important questions remain regarding the details of the energy propagation and dissipation in flares, the importance of Alfvén waves vs electron-beam and thermal conduction heating, and the effects from large-scale reconfiguration of the magnetic field during flares.