Space weather describes the way in which the Sun, and conditions in space more generally, impact human activity and technology both in space and on the ground. It is now well understood that space weather represents a significant threat to infrastructure resilience, and is a source of risk that is wide-ranging in its impact and the pathways by which this impact may occur. Although space weather is growing rapidly as a field, work rigorously assessing the overall economic cost of space weather appears to be in its infancy. Here, we provide an initial literature review to gather and assess the quality of any published assessments of space weather impacts and socioeconomic studies. Generally speaking, there is a good volume of scientific peer-reviewed literature detailing the likelihood and statistics of different types of space weather phenomena. These phenomena all typically exhibit "power-law" behavior in their severity. The literature on documented impacts is not as extensive, with many case studies, but few statistical studies. The literature on the economic impacts of space weather is rather sparse and not as well developed when compared to the other sections, most probably due to the somewhat limited data that are available from end-users. The major risk is attached to power distribution systems and there is disagreement as to the severity of the technological footprint. This strongly controls the economic impact. Consequently, urgent work is required to better quantify the risk of future space weather events.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/risa.12765

The Economic Impact of Space Weather: Where Do We Stand?

Extreme space weather: impacts on engineered systems and infrastructure

A close association has been identified between the theoretical calculation of geomagnetically induced currents (GICs) in a large network, practical measurements of GICs, the results of dissolved gas analysis (DGA) records, and damage in recently failed transformers in Southern Africa. Together these indicate that GICs may contribute significantly to transformer failures on large transmission systems in mid-latitude regions, where GICs are generally thought not to be significant.

Transformer failures in regions incorrectly considered to have low GIC-risk

[1] Large impulsive geomagnetic field disturbances from auroral current systems have always been well understood as a concern for power grids in close proximity to these disturbance regions, predominantly at high-latitude locations. Magnetospheric shocks (SSCs) due to large-scale interplanetary pressure pulses are familiar from a geomagnetic disturbance perspective but have not been understood in the context as a potential driver for large geomagnetically induced currents (GICs). Observational evidence and analysis contained in this paper illustrate such events are capable of producing large geoelectric fields and associated GIC risks at any latitude, even equatorial locations. A large SSC disturbance on 24 March 1991 produced some of the largest GICs ever measured in the United States at midlatitude locations. The analysis methods and understanding of electromagnetic coupling processes at that time were unable to fully explain these observations. Electrojet-driven disturbances common at high-latitude locations during geomagnetic substorms cause large amplitude variations in locally observed B field, while SSC events are characterized as low-amplitude B field disturbance events. Disturbance amplitude only accounts for part of the electromagnetic coupling process. The attribute of spectral content of the disturbance is equally important and heretofore had not been well understood and was not well measured unless high-cadence observations were conducted. The deep-earth ground conductivity also provides an important enabling role at higher frequencies. Deep-earth ground response to geomagnetic field disturbances is highly frequency-dependent. Therefore for nearly all ground conditions the higher the spectral content of the incident magnetic field disturbance, the higher the relative geoelectric field response.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1029/2003SW000009

Storm sudden commencement events and the associated geomagnetically induced current risks to ground-based systems at low-latitude and midlatitude locations

A surface electric field model is used to estimate the UK surface E field during the 30 October 2003
severe geomagnetic storm. This model is coupled with a power grid model to determine the flow of
geomagnetically induced currents (GIC) through the Scottish part of the UK grid. Model data are
compared with GIC measurements at four sites in the power network. During this storm, measured and
modeled GIC levels exceeded 40 A, and the surface electric field reached 5 V/km at sites in the United
Kingdom (compared with quiet-time levels of less than 0.1 V/km). The electric field and grid models now
form part of a GIC monitoring, analysis, and warning software package with Web interface, developed for
use by the grid operator. This package also contains a daily geomagnetic activity forecast service, a solar
wind shock detector for geomagnetic storm warning, and a near-real-time geomagnetic data stream for
storm monitoring.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/2005SW000156

I.Arslan Erinmez

Papers

Management of the geomagnetically induced current risks on the national grid company's electric power transmission system