The Sun unleashed a M-9.3 flare, just short of an X class (the largest) from an active region right at the Sun’s edge (Mar. 12-13, 2014). The bright flash is the tell tale sign of a flare. The brightness of the flare causes very bright saturation and blooming above and below the flare region on the CCD detector and caused extended diffraction patterns to spread out across the SDO imager. The video clip shows a smaller flare preceded this one as well. The video covers about 15 hours. The still shows the peak of the flare at 22:38 UT on Mar. 12. Images were taken in extreme ultraviolet light, showing ionized iron at 10 million degrees.

Credit: Solar Dynamics Observatory/NASA.