4 M-class Flares in a Row

Sunspot group, AR11429, started off its journey across the Earth facing side of the Sun with several bangs. First it produced an M flare on March 2 at 17:29 UT (with a CME) then came another M flare (with a CME) at 10:29 on March 4 followed and X flare with CME early on March 5. But it just keeps on letting out magnetic energy in the form of light and material (flares and CMEs). Late on March 5 and early March 6 the active region produced 4 M class flares in a row at 19:10, 19:27 on the 5th and 00:22, 01:36 on the 6th. Still more came at 04:01 and 07:52. There will probably be more before the region is done. Here are the 4 in a row as seen in the 171 and 304 angstrom channels of the SDO/AIA imager. 171 shows us material at around 600,000 Kelvin while 304 shows us cooler material at around 60,000 Kelvin.

credit: SDO and Jhelioviewer