BEIJING, June 8 — The Sun emitted a “spectacular” solar flare on Tuesday, which could cause some disruptions to satellite communications and power grids on Earth over the next day or so, scientists said.

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory observed a potent blast from the Sun had unleashed a firestorm of radiation on a level not witnessed since 2006. The flare is moving away from the Sun at 1,400 km per second.

The firestorm would deliver a “glancing blow to the Earth’s magnetic field” during the late hours of June 8th or on June 9th, according to the observatory.

The U.S. National Weather Service’s Space Weather Prediction Center said the event is “expected to cause G1 (minor) to G2 (moderate) levels of geomagnetic storm activity tomorrow, June 8, beginning around 1800 GMT.”

“Generally it is not going to cause any big problems, it will just have to be managed,” Bill Murtagh, program coordinator at the NWS’s Space Weather Prediction Center, was quoted by AFP as saying.

But he added that the solar storm could disrupt power grids, satellites, and may cause the rerouting of some flights away from the Polar Regions.

The geomagnetic storm activity will likely be over within 12-24 hours.

On Xinhua Web site: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/sci/2011-06/08/c_13917369.htm