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- Title
Occurrence of Large Geomagnetically Induced Currents Within the EPRI SUNBURST Monitoring Network.
- Authors
Ngwira, Chigomezyo M.; Arritt, Robert; Perry, Charles; Weygand, James M.; Sharma, Rishi
- Abstract
Space weather, a natural hazard, can adversely impact human technological assets. High‐voltage electric power transmission grids constitute one of the most critical technological systems vulnerable to space weather driven geomagnetically induced currents (GICs). One of the major challenges pertaining to the study of GICs over the continental United States has been the availability of GIC measurements, which are critical for validation of geoelectric field and power flow models, for example. In this study, we analyze GIC measurements collected at 17 Electrical Power Research Institute (EPRI) SUNBURST transformer locations across the United States for which a GIC value of 10 A or greater was recorded. This data set includes 52 individual geomagnetic storms with Kp index 6 and above during the period from 2010 to 2021. The analysis confirms that there is a good correlation between the number of geomagnetic storms per year and the number of recorded GIC events. Our results also show that about 76% of the top 17 GIC events are associated with the storm main phase, while only 24% are attributed to storm sudden commencements. In addition, it is shown, for the first time, that mid‐latitude positive bays can cause large GICs over the continental United States. Finally, this study shows that the largest measured GIC event in the data set was associated with a localized intense dB/dt structure, which could be attributed to substorm activity. Plain Language Summary: Space weather, a natural hazard, can adversely impact human technological assets. High‐voltage electric power transmission grids constitute one of the most critical technological systems vulnerable to induced currents produced by enhanced space weather conditions. One of the major challenges pertaining to the study of these induced currents over the continental United States has been the lack of measurements. In this study, we analyze induced current measurements collected at 17 high‐voltage power transformer locations across the United States for which a value of 10 A or greater was recorded during the period from 2010 to 2021. The analysis confirms a good correlation between the number of geomagnetic storms per year and the number of recorded induced current events. The results also show that about 76% of the top 17 induced current events are associated with the storm main phase, while only 24% are attributed to storm sudden commencements. In addition, it is shown for the first time that mid‐latitude positive bays can cause large induced currents over the continental United States. Finally, this study also shows that the largest measured GIC event in the data set was associated with a localized intense dB/dt structure, which could be attributed to substorm activity. Key Points: We analyze geomagnetically induced current (GIC) measurements collected under the EPRI SUNBURST project from across the United States and CanadaAbout 76% of the top 17 GIC events occur during main phase (MP) of geomagnetic storms, while 24% during sudden storm commencementFor the first time it is directly shown that mid‐latitude positive bays can cause large GICs at US locations
- Subjects
UNITED States; ELECTRIC power transmission; ELECTRIC power; SPACE environment; HUMAN capital; ELECTRIC power distribution grids
- Publication
Space Weather: The International Journal of Research & Applications, 2023, Vol 21, Issue 12, p1
- ISSN
1539-4956
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1029/2023SW003532