Sun Emits Mid-Level Flare on October 2, 2014

  • Released Friday, October 3rd, 2014
  • Updated Wednesday, May 3rd, 2023 at 1:50PM
  • ID: 11670

The sun emitted a mid-level solar flare, peaking at 3:01 p.m. EDT on Oct. 2, 2014. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the sun 24-hours a day, captured images of the flare. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however — when intense enough — they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.


This flare is classified as an M7.3 flare. M-class flares are one-tenth as powerful as the most powerful flares, which are designated X-class flares.

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare on Oct. 2, 2014. The solar flare is the bright flash of light on the right limb of the sun. A burst of solar material erupting out into space can be seen just below it.  Full 4k full-disk view.Image Credit: NASA/SDO

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare on Oct. 2, 2014. The solar flare is the bright flash of light on the right limb of the sun. A burst of solar material erupting out into space can be seen just below it. Full 4k full-disk view.

Image Credit:

NASA/SDO

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare on Oct. 2, 2014. The solar flare is the bright flash of light on the right limb of the sun. A burst of solar material erupting out into space can be seen just below it.Image Credit: NASA/SDO

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare on Oct. 2, 2014. The solar flare is the bright flash of light on the right limb of the sun. A burst of solar material erupting out into space can be seen just below it.

Image Credit:

NASA/SDO

For More Information



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:
  • 2014 Heliophysics Breaking News (ID: 2014015)
    Tuesday, December 30, 2014 at 5:00AM
    Produced by - Robert Crippen

Datasets used in this visualization

SDO AIA 131 (A.K.A. 131 Filter) (Collected with the AIA sensor)
JOINT SCIENCE OPERATIONS CENTER
SDO AIA 171 (A.K.A. 171 Filter) (Collected with the AIA sensor)
JOINT SCIENCE OPERATIONS CENTER
SDO AIA 304 (A.K.A. 304 Filter) (Collected with the AIA sensor)
JOINT SCIENCE OPERATIONS CENTER

Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details, nor the data sets themselves on our site.