Simple avalanche models have been used to model solar flares. However, these models do not include the full physics in an MHD model. Smaller swarms of nanoflares, many small scale energy release sites, have been used to explain the heating of the solar corona. However, these models simply assume that the required energy can be deposited in the coronal plasma.

For the first time, an MHD model shows how a single unstable magnetic thread can trigger the release of magnetic energy in neighbouring stable threads, as the start of an avalanche process.