SOHO views X-class solar flare

The Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) resulting from the big X-class solar flare on 10 June 2014 as seen through the LASCO C2 instrument of the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO).

LASCO (Large Angle Spectrometric Coronagraph) is able to take images of the solar corona by blocking the light coming directly from the Sun with an occulter disk, creating an artificial eclipse within the instrument itself.

SOHO is a project of international collaboration between ESA and NASA to study the Sun from its deep core to the outer corona and the solar wind. More about SOHO:

Credits: SOHO (ESA & NASA)

NASA SDO images of X-class solar flare

Extreme ultraviolet light streams out of an X-class solar flare as seen in this image captured on March 29, 2014, by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). 

This image blends two wavelengths of light: 304 and 171 Angstroms, which help scientists observe the lower levels of the sun's atmosphere. 

Credit: NASA/SDO

The sun emitted a significant solar flare, peaking at 1:48 p.m. EDT March 29, 2014, and NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured images of the event.

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.

To see how this event impacted Earth, please visit NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, the U.S. government's official source for space weather forecasts, alerts, watches and warnings.

This flare is classified as an X.1-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.