The sun is made up of more than 99% of hydrogen.
Solar wind is mostly hydrogen atoms carrying an electric charge.
Hydrogen atoms are made up of one single proton (electrical charge +) and one single electron (electrical charge -).
Normally, the + charge of the proton cancels out the - charge of the electron and thus, the overall electric charge of the hydrogen atom is 0,
At the temperature that the sun is, electrons gets so energetic, excited, frantic, that they bounce and break their bonds with the hydrogen nucleus (a proton of charge +).
Physicists then say that the thermal energy, that is the electron vibration energy, exceeds the electrical attraction energy. Near the surface of the sun, the temperature is so high that the hydrogen is always depleted from it's electron: it becomes a soup of electrons and hydrogen nucleus (protons) bouncing together instead of having electrons "gravivating" around protons in an orderly fashion.
The sun's surface is more akin a rave with an open, all-you-can-swallow Extasy bar than akin a tango or line dance.
When there is a flare, all of this mess gets projected at great speed in outer space.
Only charged particles can have an interaction with radio waves used for in telecoms
Also, these particles can get deflected by a magnetic field.
The earth has a large magnetif field. See picture.
The earth's magnetic field acts as a deflector, as long as the particles approach the magnetic field in a perpendicular way.
The magnetic field extends very far, far away from where there is any atmosphere.
The end direction of the deflected particle will be along the lines of the magnetic field.
Thus, particles that hits the earth are funneled along the lines to the north and south poles of the earth, where some of them enter the atmosphere.
The earth's magnetic field as a deflector, protects us from bombardments of high velocity charged particles (also called "ionizing radiation")
If you get exposed to that, it has effects similar to other kind of radiation, causes havoc in your cells by creating a trail of free radicals that damages your DNA and other cell processes. I say "trail" because these particle go so fast that before they stop, they can cause harm to many cells on the body, mostly to the skin, because they don't penetrate more than a millimeter or so. Yet, there is an awfull lot of # of cells and atoms to cross in 1 mm of skin.
Tyically, 1 cubic millimeter of flesh contains in the order of 10 to 30 milions of million of millions of molecules. A water molecule, H2O, contains 3 atoms. Roughly, it is a cube of 1mm x 1 mm by approx 2.5 million atoms thick.
Anyhow, those particles gets deflected along the earth's magnetic field lines, and end up entering he atmosphere at the poles. When this happens, you've got Northern Lights. Aurora Borealis.
So, Panky wasn't that wrong after all.
Phyzikz Rulez !
Solar Flares
What? 
Linear Mode
