Sun Puts on a Spectacular Eruption Show

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded a trio of awesome solar phenomena on August 1. A sunspot gave rise to a solar flare which erupted nearly simultaneously with a huge magnetic filament. A solar tsunami can also be seen emanating from the flare.

The different events seem to be all part of one enormous, complex, interconnected solar eruption that occupies nearly the entire face of the sun. In the video above, four different views of the events in different radiation wavelengths are shown in sequence, and different phenomena can be seen more prominently in some wavelengths.

The solar flare is the bright spot that appears to explode out of sunspot 1092 on the left side of the image, and may be more impressive in the fourth clip. The magnetic filament is a dark band that seems to roll across the northern hemisphere of the sun and is most visible in the third clip. In the first clip, the shock wave, or solar tsunami can be seen emerging from the flare and moving toward the filament. It can be seen better in this full screen version of the clip.

The event also caused a coronal mass ejection to head directly toward earth, which may mean people in the northern latitudes will be treated to auroras around August 3.