We all know that the Sun has a large impact on our weather, but with recent solar storms that impact has been heightened.

Research released by teams at the Technical University of Denmark and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem has unveiled a link between solar flares and the development, or lack thereof, of clouds.

During a two week experiment, the researchers realised that as solar flares hit the planet’s atmosphere a notable reduction in the cosmic ray flux was recorded.

At this time, the production of aerosols was hampered, in turn leading to a drop in particles for water droplets to use as seeds.

All of which eventually resulted in a drop in cloud cover, allowing more sunlight to hit the planet’s surface increasing temperatures and impacting our global climate.

The effect is most notable in low altitude liquid clouds which develop over oceans. Luckily, the effect of these solar storms is too short-lived and intermittent to have a significant impact on the Earth’s climate.