Hello,

In general, solar storms like coronal mass ejections and solar flares do not directly affect humans living on the surface of the Earth, since we are protected by the atmosphere from energetic solar particles. Coronal mass ejections, solar flares, and the geomagnetic storms that they cause pose a much bigger risk to our technology, such as satellites, navigation & communication systems, the electrical power grid, and oil pipelines than they do to humans on the Earth's surface. There is nothing that the average person should worry about in terms of health issues on a daily basis. However, there are some exceptions. For example, the flight crew on an airplane taking a polar route may experience higher levels of radiation exposure due than they would if they were on the Earth's surface. Astronauts in space also need to be concerned because they are outside the protection of the Earth's atmosphere.

If you are curious about daily space weather predictions, good web sites to visit are spaceweather.com and the NOAA/NWS Space Weather Prediction Center:

http://www.spaceweather.com/

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/

For information about the risks posed by space radiation to astronauts, visit the web site for the Space Radiation Analysis Group at Johnson Space Center:

http://srag.jsc.nasa.gov/

Kris