What Would Happen if a Solar Storm Hit Earth?

Solar Storms and Flares - NASA Science

Watch: First recorded solar flares of 2014

The Sun emitted a strong solar flare on Dec. 14, 2023, peaking at 12:02 ET. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured an image of the event, which was classified as X2.8. https://go.nasa.gov/3Ts3a1Q Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth’s atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground. However – when intense enough – they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS & communications signals travel. To see how such spac

The Sun emitted a strong solar flare on Nov. 30, 2025, peaking at 9:49 p.m. ET. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured an image of the event, which was classified as X1.9 class: go.nasa.gov/4alXf6P Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth’s atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground. However — when intense enough — they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS & communications signals travel. To see how such sp

The Sun emitted a strong solar flare on Jan. 5, 2023, peaking at 7:57 p.m. ET. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured an image of the event, which was classified as X-class. bit.ly/3IsPJsW Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth’s atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however – when intense enough – they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS & communications signals travel. To see how such space weath