Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Great Day in the Mornin', A Double X-flare

This morning a new active region rotated into view on the solar disk and promptly emitted two X-class flares. Here is a movie of the first flare in the AIA 1600 passband. It peaked in the NOAA X-ray channel at 1142 UTC. You can see the flare and some footpoints down and to the right of the flare. You can also see material blowing off the sun. The geometric shapes that are visible during the peak of the flare are reflections of the front window of the telescope. 

It's going to be an interesting week on the Sun!