Hi Silver.I just saw your posts and the responses for the first time today. I want you to be aware of another approach that might work for your plot treatment, that would withstand scientific scrutiny for accuracy and plausibility, perhaps in some ways even better than a solar flare.Instead, seriously consider the idea of using a GAMMA RAY BURST (GRB), which is basically a blast of gamma rays washing over planet earth from a sudden unanticipated supernova explosion of a nearby star. You could have the burst be very brief, i.e. essentially seriously damaging or eliminating life just on the side of the planet facing the the star. Or, you could lengthen it to cover enough of the planet to cause a complete extinction. If you look at a globe, the Pacific Ocean covers almost one half of the planet, so all human and terrestial life is facing one way, so serious damage could occur within 10 minutes, and you can customize the exent of life damage to your plot by adjusting the distance of the star, the length of the burst, and the position of earth in its rotation (the time of day). Also, a GRB from a nearby star would produce a spectacular visual effect. GRB's have been considered as possible causes of past mass extinctions on planet earth. The only reason why life wasn't completely eliminated was that the GRB's have so far been from stars in our galaxy that are too far away to kill everything.Properly portrayed, you will introduce your audience to a very frightening scenario and give people anxiety and nightmares about something that they didn't even know existed.Here are a few links for more information:-sysreset