SOHO: Pick of the Week (2012 Sep 28)

[bystander]

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Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Bright Flare, Backside Event

STEREO (Behind) caught this very bright flare that must have a fairly powerful event, given the extended breadth of the "bleeding" of pixels that it produced (Sept. 20, 2012) when viewed in extreme UV light. (By "bleeding" we mean when the electronic detectors are overloaded, the intensity is shifted away from the actual bright source and into pixels in lines on either side of the flaring region).

A smaller flare occurs near the beginning of the clip, which covers about 14 hours. This active region went on to produce several more flares over the following days. STEREO Behind's position is currently trailing Earth by about 120 degrees, which enables it to see activity that we cannot view from Earth.

Credit: NASA/ESA/SOHO/STEREO

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