ESA/SWWT: Ground Effects Topical Group (GETG)

Spokesman: Risto Pirjola

Summary :

At the Earth’s surface, space weather manifests itself as geoelectromagnetic effects. Geomagnetic activity is increased, i.e. the geomagnetic field becomes disturbed, in other words, a geomagnetic storm occurs. The geoelectric field drives currents, called geomagnetically induced currents (GIC), in man-made conductors, such as electric power transmission systems, oil and gas pipelines, telecommunication cables and railway equipment. GIC may cause problems to the systems: transformers can be saturated, pipelines may suffer from enhanced corrosion, and telecommunication and railway systems can experience overvoltage.

Activities:

• Modelling the occurrence of geomagnetic variations and geoelectric fields during space weather events
• Modelling GIC in electric power systems (discrete grounding)
• Modelling GIC in buried pipeline networks (continuous grounding)
• Measurements of geomagnetic variations, geoelectric fields and GIC
• Development of forecast techniques of GIC based on neural networks or on physical models
• Collaboration with power and pipeline industry on GIC research
• Advice on and forecast of geomagnetic activity to users, such as oil drilling and prospecting industry and aeromagnetic survey enterprises

Group Members

Miscellaneous

Meetings