Today's Earth Geomagnetic Storm: Currents Flowing into Ground | USGS/NOAA

Today's Earth Geomagnetic Storm: Currents Flowing into Ground | USGS/NOAA

Electrical currents are currently flowing through rocks and soil of the United States, Canada and other countries and areas of our planet in response to today's geomagnetic storm. Red zones in these maps from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) show where the geoelectric voltages have been the highest. "Peak voltages in the US midwest are approaching 5 V/km. For reference, this is less than 25% of what caused the Great Quebec Blackout in 1989. Power outages are currently unlikely." The first two maps are "snapshots from a real-time display that takes into account the 3D conductivity of the Earth and ongoing geomagnetic activity. A computer at NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center generates the data to produce minute-by-minute estimates of electricity in the ground."

"The coronal mass ejection (CME) launched by the sun's X-flare on Tuesday, October 8, 2024, has just reached Earth. It appears to be as potent as advertized. Solar wind speeds have jumped up to 750 km/s, and a crack is opening in Earth's magnetic field. A strong G3-class geomanetic storm is underway with a good chance that it will intensify to category G4 (severe). If it is dark where you are, be alert for auroras!"

The geoelectric field is a measure of the induction hazard to human-made conductors, such as electrical power lines, that results from geomagnetic activity, and can be used to estimate the amount of current induced by integrating along the conducting pathway. 

The US-Canada-1D geoelectric field model uses 1D conductivity models over the lower 48 United States and over Canada up to 60 degrees latitude, with output spatial resolution of 1/2 degree in latitude and longitude. Potentially hazardous geoelectric fields can be induced during geomagnetic storms. 

These geomagnetic storms are a form of space weather driven by enhanced currents in Earth's magnetosphere and ionosphere and are observed at ground level as a time-varying magnetic field. As is well known from Faraday's law, a time-varying magnetic field induces currents along natural and artificial conducting pathways. 

These geoelectric field maps combine information about the time-varying magnetic field together with Earth-conductivity information to estimate regional geoelectric fields. The amount of current induced in an artificial conductor may be calculated by integrating the geoelectric field along the conducting pathway. When currents are induced in artificial conductors, unexpected and sometimes problematic effects can occur in the operation of the affected equipment. 

Learn more about the effect this has on electrical power systems on Earth here: https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/impacts/electric-power-transmission

The near real-time US-Canada-1D E-field mapping project is a joint effort between NOAA/SWPC and NRCan/CHIS Space Weather, in collaboration with the USGS geomagnetism group and the NASA/Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC).

Image Credits: NOAA/United States Geological Survey (USGS)/Natural Resources Canada

Article Credit: NOAA/Spaceweather[dot]com

Release Date: Oct. 10, 2024

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