An unusual solar flare observed by a NASA space observatory on Tuesday could cause some disruptions to satellites, communications and power on Earth over the next day or so, officials said.

An eruption of similar magnitude on the Sun has not been witnessed since 2006, according to the National Weather Service.
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© SOHOThis 2006 Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) image shows a flare on the Sun. An unusual solar flare observed by a NASA space observatory on Tuesday could cause some disruptions to satellites, communications and power on Earth over the next day or so, officials said. An eruption of similar magnitude has not been witnessed since 2006.

"The Sun unleashed an M-2 (medium-sized) solar flare with a substantial coronal mass ejection (CME) on June 7 that is visually spectacular," NASA's solar dynamics observatory said in a statement.

"The large cloud of particles mushroomed up and fell back down looking as if it covered an area of almost half the solar surface."

The flare peaked at a 1:41 am Eastern time in the United States, or 0541 GMT.

However, since the eruption was not pointed directly at Earth, the effects were expected to remain "fairly small," NASA said.

The National Weather Service's Space Weather Prediction Center described it as a "dramatic eruption" that is "expected to cause G1 (minor) to G2 (moderate) levels of Geomagnetic Storm activity tomorrow, June 8, beginning around 1800 GMT.

"The Solar Radiation Storm includes a significant contribution of high energy (>100 MeV) protons, the first such occurrence of an event of that type since December 2006."

The resulting geomagnetic storm could cause some disruption in power grids, satellites that operate global positioning systems and other devices, and may lead to some rerouting of flights over the polar regions, a spokesman said.