Events that occur on the Sun include sunspots, solar flares, solar wind, and solar prominences. Sunspots are magnetic storms on the photosphere that appear as dark areas. Sunspots regularly appear and disappear in eleven-year cycles. Solar flares are spectacular discharges of magnetic energy from the corona. These discharges send streams of protons and electrons outward into space.
Solar flares can interrupt the communications network here on Earth.
Solar winds are the result of gas expansion in the corona. This expansion leads to ion formation. These ions are hurled outward from the corona at over 500 kilometers per second. Solar prominences are storms of gas which erupt from the surface in the form of columns which either shoot outward into space or twist and loop back to the Sun's surface. The Sun gives off many kinds of radiation other than light and heat.