Topline The sun’s active sunspots—which are the cause of recent Northern Lights sightings in the U.S.—may erupt a few solar flares this weekend, and scientists recommend using solar eclipse glasses to see how the spots change over the next few days.
Group of female friends have fun together during a solar eclipse event. Their looking and pointing ..
. [+] to the sun wearing the typical glasses normally used to watch a solar eclipse. Key Facts There may be a chance a few minor to moderate R1 and R2 solar flares will erupt from active sunspots this weekend, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s weekend space weather forecast .
Although there aren’t any Northern Lights on the weekend forecast, solar flares are one of the main causes of the lights, so there may be an opportunity to see the aurora next week, since it takes a few days for the solar material to become visible on Earth. Although solar activity in the area the sunspots are located in—named Region 3796—has slowed down a bit, NOAA is hopeful solar flares will be released this weekend, since the region produced an R2 flare Wednesday morning, highlighting the spots’ “flare potential.” There were 12 different sunspot groups on Thursday that covered over 2 billion miles, which is more than 11 times the land area of Earth.
How Can You See The Sunspots? Region 3796 is currently facing Earth, so sunspots should be visible with the proper equipment. NOAA recommends using solar ecl.