From that article it says "A good flare can release up to 10% of the Sun’s total energy" but they mean power, not energy, right? Because 10% of the sun's total energy released in that time frame would wipe us out, right?
I can't figure out what they mean.
[Edit]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_flare
> A solar flare is a sudden brightening observed over the Sun surface or the solar limb, which is interpreted as a large energy release of up to 6 × 10^25 joules of energy[1] (about a sixth of the total energy output of the Sun each second).
"A good flare can release up to 10% of the Sun’s total energy, the equivalent of billions of nuclear bombs exploding. What’s funny to me is that this wasn’t all that big a flare; it was rated as a class M2.5, far lower in energy than the vast explosions from the Sun back in February."