The study of solar flares is driven by both practical as well as scientific reasons.
Flares are explosive eruptions of energy on the surface of the sun.
These releases are the most powerful form of solar activity and occasionally have severe impact on terresterial communications and power distribution. Tight magnetic fields associated with active reagions on the sun form sunspots. These magnetic fields become twisted and kinked, storing tremendous amounts of energy. The process that causes the flare energy release is not well understood, and no predictive model exists which allows scientists to know in advance when or where a flare will erupt. The energy released in a flare occures over the full spectrum of wavelengths from the radio to visible, to ultraviolet and x-ray.