Its diameter is equivalent to 30-60 times the earth's radius, and its length up to 1000 times the same radius. It is, in effect, as if the earth's magnetic field creates a tunnel in the plasma current from the solar wind. Inside one end is the earth, and around its surface the earth's magnetism and the solar wind interact. Rayleigh-Taylor instability often occurs in tropical latitudes, causing rising bubbles to ascend out of the top of the ionosphere and substantially distorting the normal layering. The communications industry has lots of problems with solar events.
Solar activity can garble radio transmissions, fry the electronics on satellites and in antennas.
The power industry has problems with solar events as well, as their transformers can be overloaded. Almost any industry that uses electronics in space can be affected by extremely powerful bursts, but these are rare. The technical descriptions are not mine, they come from the Space Environmental Centre in the USA and the Swedish Institute of Space Physics, to whom I am indebted for their use. Small wonder then, that solar radiation upsets the navigational ability of our pigeons. Suffice it to say however, that radiation does disturb avian navigation, and the sensible fancier would do well to acquaint himself with the facilities that exist to ascertain where and when solar disturbances are taking place, and whether or not the forecasts put out by Geomagnetic Stations are sufficiently high for him to take remedial action.