New Delhi, May 14 -- A violent solar flare has reminded us just what changes in the sun's surface conditions can do to us. Strong solar storms can bring down power infrastructure, communications and disrupt navigation-facets through which the modern world functions. Mint explains:

Most solar flares are violent storms of plasma material on the sun's surface, creating a strong gust of charged particles, or solar 'wind', through space. This wind carries with itself a magnetic field. But our planet has its own magnetic field too-Earth's magnetosphere is the outermost layer of our atmosphere. While this field protects us from most solar flares, very strong ones overwhelm our magnetic field, causing charged particles from the sun to enter our ...