Sun unleashes first X-class flare of 2014

  • Released Tuesday, January 7, 2014
  • Updated Thursday, September 24, 2015 at 1:41PM
  • ID: 11136

The sun emitted a significant solar flare peaking at 1:32 p.m. EST on Jan.7, 2014. This is the first significant flare of 2014, and follows on the heels of mid-level flare earlier in the day. Each flare was centered over a different area of a large sunspot group currently situated at the center of the sun, about half way through its 14-day journey across the front of the disk along with the rotation of the sun.

This flare is classified as an X1.2-class flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength. An X2 is twice as intense as an X1, an X3 is three times as intense, etc.

This closeup of the Sun taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, shows large sunspot AR1944 and the source area of the X1.2 class solar flare, which appears to be from adjacent, smaller sunspot AR1943.Image Credit:NASA/SDO/Goddard Space Flight Center

This closeup of the Sun taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, shows large sunspot AR1944 and the source area of the X1.2 class solar flare, which appears to be from adjacent, smaller sunspot AR1943.

Image Credit:NASA/SDO/Goddard Space Flight Center

This image shows light in the 1600 angstrom and 304 angstrom wavelengths, showing both sunspots visible on the sun's surface and the flare in the solar atmosphere. Credit: NASA/SDO/Goddard Space Flight Center

This image shows light in the 1600 angstrom and 304 angstrom wavelengths, showing both sunspots visible on the sun's surface and the flare in the solar atmosphere.

Credit: NASA/SDO/Goddard Space Flight Center



Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center


Missions

This visualization is related to the following missions:

Series

This visualization can be found in the following series:

Tapes

This visualization originally appeared on the following tapes:
  • None


You may also like...

Loading...