  In June 2013, the two scientific instruments onboard the second Sunrise
mission witnessed, in detail, a small-scale magnetic flux emergence event as
part of the birth of an active region. The Imaging Magnetograph Experiment
(IMaX) recorded two small (~5 arcsec) emerging flux patches in the polarized
filtergrams of a photospheric Fe I spectral line. Meanwhile, the Sunrise Filter
Imager (SuFI) captured the highly dynamic chromospheric response to the
magnetic fields pushing their way through the lower solar atmosphere. The
serendipitous capture of this event offers a closer look at the inner workings
of active region emergence sites. In particular, it reveals in meticulous
detail how the rising magnetic fields interact with the granulation as they
push through the Sun's surface, dragging photospheric plasma in their upward
travel. The plasma that is burdening the rising field slides along the field
lines, creating fast downflowing channels at the footpoints. The weight of this
material anchors this field to the surface at semi-regular spatial intervals,
shaping it in an undulatory fashion. Finally, magnetic reconnection enables the
field to release itself from its photospheric anchors, allowing it to continue
its voyage up to higher layers. This process releases energy that lights up the
arch-filament systems and heats the surrounding chromosphere.
