The high-speed wind is grazing Earth’s magnetic field today after escaping from a gap in the star’s northern atmosphere.
Solar wind, which is actually a stream of charged particles and heat, typically takes between three and four days to reach Earth after being ejected from the Sun.
And according to SpaceWeather.com, the latest high-speed particle stream has the potential to cause “geomagnetic unrest” as well as auroras around the Arctic Circle.
The latest activity comes just a day after NASA announced it had discovered a new sunspo and marks the first activity on the star’s surface for more than six months.
The sunspot, dubbed AR2699, caused a series of solar flares – changes in the sun’s brightness – which were observed from Earth.
Geomagnetic storms are feared for their ability to cause massive damage to satellites, power grids and communications networks.
A severe storm has the potential to wreak unprecedented havoc by knocking out phone, radio and internet systems for weeks, months or potentially even years.
The largest geomagnetic storm recorded to hit earth occurred in 1859 and disrupted telegraph systems across Europe and North America.
Also known as the Carrington Event, the storm produced auroras which were visible in many parts of the world as the charged particles from the sun smashed into Earth’s atmosphere.
Experts in the United States have warned if a geomagnetic storm on the same scale hit the planet again, it could cause damage costing trillions of dollars to repair.
A storm of similar power occurred in July 2012, though the area of the sun which produced the coronal mass ejection was not pointed directly at the Earth at the time.
In 2015, the Government published a report into the risks to the UK of severe space weather such as a solar storm.
It concluded an event such as a coronal mass ejection could wreak havoc across the world.
The report said: “Where such activity is directed towards Earth there is the potential to cause wide-ranging impacts.
“These include power loss, aviation disruption, communication loss, and disturbance to (or loss) of satellite systems.
“This includes Global Navigation Satellite Systems on which a range of technologies depend for navigation or timing.”