Hi Erica, I assume your question is about solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). These are vividly called solar storms. There are also magnetic storms in the Earth's magnetosphere. For the solar storms, scientists study them through remote sensing. They use telescopes to take frequent images of the solar surface and the corona. They then analyze the variation of the magnetic field, and coronal emission enhancements caused by the flares and CMEs. Yan