And when the solar winds strike our planet, they can wreak havoc in the atmosphere.
NASA said: “Modern society depends on a variety of technologies susceptible to the extremes of space weather.
“Strong electrical currents driven along the Earth’s surface during auroral events disrupt electric power grids and contribute to the corrosion of oil and gas pipelines.
“Changes in the ionosphere during geomagnetic storms interfere with high-frequency radio communications and Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation.
In a bid to better understand how technology is affected by these solar phenomena, NASA is launching three missions to the northern polar cusp.
The NASA missions are all part of the Grand Challenge Initiative – Cusp – nine rocket missions designed to explore the magnetic funnels.