X-class solar flare, 7 January 2014. This significant solar flare, the first major flare of 2014, peaked at 18:32 UTC. The flare was centred over a large sunspot group currently about halfway through its 14-day journey across the solar disk. This flare is classified as an X1.2-class flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength. An X2 is twice as intense as an X1, an X3 is three times as intense, and so on. This clip was obtained by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) in 1600 angstrom wavelength of light.