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Bastille Day Solar Flare and a Coronal Mass Ejection

July 18, 2017
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory observed a medium-sized flare, lasting almost two hours, and a coronal mass ejection erupting from the same, large active region on July 14, 2017.

A flare medium-sized (M2) flare and a coronal mass ejection erupted from the same, large active region (July 14, 2017). The flare lasted almost two hours, quite a long duration. Coronagraphs on the SOHO spacecraft show a substantial cloud of charged particles blasting into space just after the blast. The coils arcing over this active region are particles spiraling along magnetic field lines, which were reorganizing themselves after the magnetic field was disrupted by the blast. Images were taken in a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light.

Movies
PIA21836_Mflare_171_big.mp4
PIA21836_Mflare_171_sm.mp4

SDO is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Its Atmosphere Imaging Assembly was built by the Lockheed Martin Solar Astrophysics Laboratory (LMSAL), Palo Alto, California.

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