Space weather

Coronal mass ejections (CME) at the Sun’s surface blow large amounts of charged particles into interplanetary space. The particle streams interact with the Earth’s magnetosphere and ionosphere, dramatically intensifying the fluctuating magnetic field by a factor of ten or more at the Earth‘s surface. This fluctuating geomagnetic field induces fluctuating geoelectric field in the conducting Earth that in turn generates geomagnetically induced currents (GICs) in the ground technological systems, such as power grids and pipelines. Modelling and forecasting ground geoelectric field and eventually GICs is a rapidly growing field of research, fuelled by the recognition that GICs can have a major impact on society by affecting power transmission systems or global navigating systems. This concern is reflected worldwide on regulatory and policy levels. We have been developing the numerical tools to predict and forecast spatio-temporal evolution of geoelectric field taking into account realistic conductivity models of the Earth, and realistic models of ionospheric and magnetospheric current systems.