Power grids face unexpected slow-burn threat from solar storms
A new study reveals that severe geomagnetic storms can pose an unexpected slow-burn threat to power grids, causing prolonged, low-level currents that can overheat and damage transformers. This finding, based on a 2015 storm in New Zealand, suggests existing monitoring tools may not adequately capture these long-duration effects. Researchers traced the cause to a possible 'mid-latitude ionospheric current wedge'.
As countries electrify more of their economies and increasingly interconnect their power grids, understanding space weather has become crucial. One particularly adverse form of space weather is a geomagnetic storm : temporary disturbances in earth’s magnetic field caused by charged particles from the sun. These storms produce beautiful aurorae but also induce strong yet short-lived currents in the grid.
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