What's the worse thing a severe sun spot can do to our Earth?

Question

Does it affect us at all or is it a safe natural occurrence of our sun?

Answer 1

The jury is still out on how much sunspots can (or do) affect the Earth's climate.  Times of maximum sunspot activity are associated with a very slight increase in the energy output from the sun.  Ultraviolet radiation increases dramatically during high sunspot activity, which can have a large effect on the Earth's atmosphere.  From the mid 1600s to early 1700s, a period of very low sunspot activity (known as the Maunder Minimum) coincided with a number of long winters and severe cold temperatures in Western Europe, called the Little Ice Age.  It is not known whether the two phenomena are linked or if it was just coincidence.  The reason it is hard to relate maximum and minimum solar activity (sunspots) to the Earth's climate, is due to the complexity of the Earth's climate itself.  For example, how does one sort out whether a long-term weather change was caused by sunspots, or maybe a coinciding El Nino or La Nina?  Increased volcanic eruptions can also affect the Earth's climate by cooling the planet.  And what about the burning of fossil fuels and clear cutting rain forests?  One thing is more certain, sunspot cycles have been correlated in the width of tree ring growth.  More study will be conducted in the future on relating sunspot activity and our Earth's climate.  

Answer 2

cause the weather to be more severe on earth.  

Answer 3

Sunspots are cooler regions on the surface of the Sun.  They are associated with solar flares, no one's quite sure how.  The Earth has a magnetosphere that protects it from much of the damage such a flare could cause.  Mostly, I believe what we would suffer is a communications blackout.  Solar flare-ups also cause the aurora to become more intense and dip down into lower latitudes.  I'd love to see that.  I live in Florida and I've never seen them/it.

Answer 4

i don't know, but a solar flare will turn us into a burnt rice krispie

Answer 5

a sun spot won't do anything.... the solar flares that they can cause, are dangerous.... theoretically one strong enougha nd pointed directly at us could blow away our atmosphere.....

canada suffered a severe black out due to a solar flare a while back.  

Answer 6

  It could knock out the GPS systems.

Answer 7

A sunspot in and of itself is harmless, but they are regions of the Sun where the magnetic field is extremely twisted. Like a steel cable, they can only hold so much energy before they can bear no more and snap violently, causing a solar flare. Solar flares can be incredibly dangerous to us. In space they can destroy or damage spacecraft and kill astronauts with the storms of highly energetic charged particles and lethal surges of gamma and x-rays, which arrive immediately from the Sun. The charge particles and masses of plasma take up to several days to reach us. Flares also can overload the Earth's magnetosphere, causing geomagnetic storms. On the ground, that can create electromagnetic pulse like effects that will destroy electrical circuitry and electronics on the ground. People in aircraft flying in the polar regions can get dangerous amounts of radiation that can cause cancers, leukemias, birth defects and even radiation sickness. The power grids can fail, satellite navigation and communications satellites can be knocked out and chaos can result when people are without food, water, and electricity. The massive electrical surges induced in electrical lines, pipelines and control circuitry could cause all sorts of disasters such as oil refineries exploding or massive releases of toxic or deadly chemicals into the air or water. Transformers and computers are particularly susceptible to these power surges, which will blow them up. A large transformer in a power grid is not an off the shelf item, each one being made virtually by hand. It can take a year to replace one, and the capacity to make new ones all over the globe is limited. In fact, the effect of a solar flare upon electrical and electronic circuitry is identical to those of nuclear weapons. Technology does exist to defend electronics and electrical equipment from this threat, and it needs to be incorporated into the power grid. In 1859 the Sun treated the Earth to a flare so powerful telegraph lines all over the world died in flames.  Had that happened today, the damage globally would run into hundreds of billions of dollars and there would have been deaths too directly or indirectly as well. Our only defense now is to watch the Sun closely for these flares, and when they occur, warn satellite operators, airlines, astronauts and power grid operators of the impending threat so they can take action to protect their equipment and personnel.

Answer 8

Sun spot activities is pretty closely monitored by many people. Radio amateurs have for years published the number of sun spot since they affect the layers of the ionosphere and the propagation of radio waves on the low and medium frequencies.

An exceptionally high level of sun sports may cause for example a break down, temporary or permanent of some communication satellites and the GPS system.