PHOENIX — If you still have eclipse glasses, they may come in handy this weekend. Using solar eclipse glasses, you can see the cause of the massive solar storm.
The solar storm is an eruption on the surface of the sun that's sending jets of particles streaming toward Earth, called Coronal Mass Ejections.
"The sun gets this active region on it, and it starts to get excited, and eventually releases this burst of particles," ASU assistant professor Katrina Bossert said.
The active regions, Bossert said, are clusters of sunspots on the sun, which you can see without a telescope.
If you still have eclipse glasses, Bossert said, you can look at the sun and see a dark spot at the bottom of the sun. Those are the sunspots.
But again, only look at the sun through eclipse glasses. Similar to the dangers posed by looking at a solar eclipse without proper eye protection, the same dangers are present for the solar storm.
Those sunspots are part of the eruption sending particles to Earth, where they interact with the planet's magnetosphere.
"Our atmosphere is very thick, and generally these particles are absorbed in the atmosphere," she said.
But CMEs send extremely high amounts of particles and can sometimes cause problems with power and communications, though the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said critical infrastructure has been given a heads-up in time to prepare.
"We have a very rare event on our hand," Shawn Dahl with NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center said during a press call.
The Space Weather Prediction Center said it was issuing a G5 watch, the most severe level of warning for solar activity.
This solar storm is expected to last through the weekend. If you snag a great photo, you can email it to us at connect@12news.com or text it to us at (602) 444-1212.
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