Review On The Calculation Of Surface Electric And Magnetic Fields And Of Geomagnetically Induced Currents In Ground-Based Technological Systems

Abstract

Space weather is a popular and important research topic today. Its origin isin the Sun. Space weather effects extend to the surface of the Earth where theyare usually called GIC referring to geomagnetically induced currents intechnological systems such as electric power transmission grids, oil and gaspipelines, telecommunication cables and railway equipment. GIC are a possiblesource of problems within such systems, and observations have been made sincethe first telegraph systems in the 1800's. This paper is a summary and reviewof present knowledge and of possibilities of modelling GIC in a system.Modelling efforts require a determination of the electric field occurring inconnection with a magnetic storm at the Earth's surface and a calculation ofthe resulting GIC. Different modelling techniques of the electric and magneticfields are evaluated in this paper, and special attention is paid to thecomplex image method (CIM) which is suitable for time-critical purposes likeforecasting of GIC. A discretely-earthed power system and a buried pipelineneed different calculation methods of GIC. The former can be treated by amatrix formalism while the distributed-source transmission line (DSTL) theoryis applicable to the latter.