A solar flare is a violent explosion in the Sun's atmosphere with an energy equivalent to tens of millions of hydrogen bombs.

Solar flares take place in the solar corona and chromosphere, heating plasma to tens of millions of kelvins and accelerating the resulting electrons, protons and heavier ions to near the speed of light.

They produce electromagnetic radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum at all wavelengths from long-wave radio to the shortest wavelength gamma rays.

Most flares occur around sunspots, where intense magnetic fields emerge from the Sun's surface into the corona.

The energy efficiency associated with solar flares may take several hours or even days to build up, but most flares take only a matter of minutes to release their energy..

For more information about the topic Solar flare, read the full article at Wikipedia.org, or see the following related articles:

Corona — In astronomy, a corona is the luminous plasma "atmosphere" of the Sun or other celestial body, extending millions of kilometres into space, most ...  > read more

Sunspot — A sunspot is a region on the Sun's surface (photosphere) that is marked by a lower temperature than its surroundings and intense magnetic activity, ...  > read more

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