The sun's rays warm our body and tan our skin. The sun, however, sends us more than warmth and light. When there are explosions on the sun's surface, a burst of gas and energy called the solar wind blows out into space. When the Earth is in its path, a storm of space weather strikes our planet. Explosions on the sun are usually related to sunspots.
Sunspots are areas of concentrated magnetic energy on the sun.
They occur in a predictable pattern. Every 11 years the number of sunspots goes up and then down again. This year, we are near the peak of this sunspot cycle. In years where there are more sunspots, like this year, there are also lots of solar flares. Solar flares are the biggest explosions in our solar system.