What happened to the sun over 7,000 years ago?
By analyzing the level of a carbon isotope in tree rings from a specimen of an ancient bristlecone pine, researchers have revealed that the sun exhibited a unique pattern of activity in 5480 BC. By comparing this event with other similar but more recent phenomena, they reported that this event may have involved a change in the sun's magnetic activity, or a number of successive solar burst emissions. Ref. Source 9l.
Eruptions on the sun trigger surprising phenomenon near Earth
Eruptions on the Sun's surface not only send bursts of energetic particles into the Earth's atmosphere causing disturbances in our planet's magnetic field, they can also strangely decrease the number of free electrons over large areas in the polar region of the ionosphere, new research concludes. Ref. Source 2s.
The loss of the free electrons can hinder a lot of stuff that is there to protect the earth. I think this is very important research to help us understand this and work to help protect ourselves and our power grids and other stuff.