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On March 29, 2014

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an X-class flare burst off the sun and vaulted into history.

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as the best observed flare of all time.

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The flare was witnessed by four different NASA observatories and one ground-based observatory.

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Each telescope captures a different aspect of the flare at a different

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height off the sun's surface. Working together, NASA's

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Heliophysics Fleet will help scientists better understand what sets off these

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large explosions on the sun.

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These images were taken using NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO.

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It specializes in capturing images of the entire sun at once.

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A close up shot captures some detail, but not at extremely high resolution.

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IRIS watches a range of layers in the sun's

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lower atmosphere. IRIS follows a well-planned schedule to

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observe small areas on the sun in high resolution.

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It was fortuitously pointed on this active region of the sun, in the hopes of catching a flare.

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This is the first X-class flare seen by the spacecraft.

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The RHESSI spacecraft can only see material at extreme temperatures.

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on the sun. To RHESSI, a flare looks like three pockets of

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heat in a triangle formation. There are two points on the bottom,

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showing foot points, and a third at the top of the flare.

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The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's and NASA's Hinode

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shows a series of layers in the sun's atmosphere. The images from Hinode's

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x-ray telescope show how material progresses from the lowest part of the

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atmosphere, called the chromosphere, upward through the heart of the flare,

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up to over three thousand miles above the surface.

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These images were captured by the National Solar Observatory's

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Dunn Solar Telescope in New Mexico.

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The telescope can watch only a small area at once, but it provides much higher resolution each area.

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The March 29th flare fortunately coincided with the best time of day

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for viewing from the ground.

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When combined, this comprehensive of one single flare will shed light on

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many future discoveries.

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