Space weather effects on technological systems on the ground

Space weather refers to conditions in the Earth's near-space associated with particles and electromagnetic fields which may influence the operation of space-borne and ground-based technological systems. At the Earth's surface space weather manifests itself as geomagnetic storms and its effects are known as GIC (geomagnetically induced currents). Power grids and pipelines are systems experiencing GIC. In the former, transformers can be saturated leading to different problems, and in the latter problems associated with corrosion arise. GIC are driven by the geoelectric field induced by a magnetic storm. The complex image method (CIM) has been proved to be an efficient tool for calculating the geoelectric field. The basic principles of CIM are presented in this paper. Regarding the flow of GIC, a discretely earthed power system and a continuously earthed buried pipeline represent two extreme cases requiring different methods for determining GIC.