Solar flares in the recent sunspot maximum

At the time of writing (October, 2005) we have almost completed the fourth solar maximum of the space age, during which we have had nearly continuous study of solar activity from above the Earth’s atmosphere. During the most recent part of this era the progress of technology has enabled new observations with unprecedented scope. As a result we have learned many new and important things about solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs), the two main forms of violent magnetic activity in the solar corona. In this paper I briefly discuss these observations, which have come from a remarkable flotilla of spacecraft led by Yohkoh and continuing through RHESSI.