Smithsonian.com.
Most of these events have little or no effect on Earth, but an especially powerful flare or plasma ejection aimed in the right direction could knock out Earth-based telecommunications systems.
Sometime in the next two or three months, something special will happen: the magnetic field that emanates from the Sun and extends throughout the entire solar system will reverse in polarity.
“It’s really hard to say exactly when it’s going to happen, but we know it’ll be in the next few months, for sure,” saysAndrés Muñoz-Jaramillo, a researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who studies the Sun’s magnetic cycle. “This happens every solar cycle, and it’s a very special day when it does.”