There was a massive solar flare just after 8am this morning … here is what it looked like from the GOES SUVI (Solar Ultra Violet Observatory) 303 Angstrom (He) wavelength sensor. Here is a static frame …
and here is an animation of the last 12 hours or so:
You can see this originated from a very active area with prominences; they are hoop shaped, following the local magnetic field of the sun. Fortunately it had just rotated past the edge on the other side of the sun, so we didn’t get the full blast. This flare is classified as an X3.3 flare. Here’s some more information on on flares and how they are classified from NASA, and here is a work sheet with math problems for your students 😛