When strong showers of solar electrical particles strike the earth’s atmosphere their energy is deposited into the atmosphere causing the atmosphere to ‘puff up’. This creates more drag on satellites orbiting the earth. During severe storms GPS systems have been off by a few miles due to this effect. One year four satellites had to be taken off-line so that they could be sent new orbital booster instructions to get them back into their correct position and another satellite ended up burning up in the atmosphere later that year. The early demise of Skylab was also due to the effect.

(The Great Courses – The Life and Death of Stars)