A very active Sun

Three powerful X-class flares were released by active region AR1748 during just 24 hours between May 13-14, 2013, followed up by yet another X-class flare on May 15 (not shown). This movie, from the STEREO Behind observatory, located on the far side of the Sun, shows not only the three X-flares (seen as brief flahses) and their associated coronal mass ejections, but also quite a bit of other activity on the side of the Sun not visible from Earth. The active region producing the flares is near the upper-right edge of the Sun as seen in by STEREO Behind in the 304 Angstrom line of Helium (orange) by the EUVI telescope. Surrounding the Sun is the solar atmosphere revealed by another instrument, STEREO's COR1 coronagraph.

• cme_20130513b.mov   
• cme_20130513b_sm.mov   
• cme_20130513b.mpg   
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