On August 1, 2010, almost the entire <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Earth" title="Earth">Earth</a>-facing side of the <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Sun" title="Sun">sun</a> erupted in a tumult of activity. This image from the <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Solar_Dynamics_Observatory" title="Category:Solar Dynamics Observatory">Solar Dynamics Observatory</a> of the news-making solar event on August 1 shows the C3-class solar flare (<a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/White" class="mw-redirect" title="White">white</a> area on upper left), a solar <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tsunami" title="Tsunami">tsunami</a> (wave-like structure, upper right), multiple filaments of <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Magnetism" title="Category:Magnetism">magnetism</a> lifting off the stellar surface, large-scale shaking of the solar <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Corona" title="Corona">corona</a>, radio bursts, a coronal mass ejection and more.<br>
This multi-wavelength extreme ultraviolet snapshot from the Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the sun's northern hemisphere in mid-eruption. Different colours in the image represent different gas temperatures. Earth's magnetic field is still reverberating from the solar flare impact on August 3, 2010, which sparked <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Aurora" title="Aurora">aurorae</a> as far south as <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin" title="Wisconsin">Wisconsin</a> and <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Iowa" class="mw-redirect" title="Iowa">Iowa</a> in the <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/United_States" title="United States">United States</a>. Analysts believe a second solar flare is following behind the first flare and could re-energize the fading geomagnetic storm and spark a new round of Northern Lights.
NASA/SDO/AIA
2010-08-01
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1732.html">NASA Image of the Day</a>