Observations from SANSA’s geomagnetic network during the Saint Patrick’s Day storm of 17–18 March 2015
Geomagnetic storms are space weather events that result in a temporary disturbance of the earth’s magnetosphere caused by a solar wind that interacts with the earth’s magnetic field. We examined more closely how some southern African magnetic observatories responded to the Saint Patrick’s Day storm...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Academy of Science of South Africa
2019-01-01
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| Series: | South African Journal of Science |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.sajs.co.za/article/view/5204 |
| _version_ | 1818129075545309184 |
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| author | Emmanuel Nahayo Pieter B. Kotzé Pierre J. Cilliers Stefan Lotz |
| author_facet | Emmanuel Nahayo Pieter B. Kotzé Pierre J. Cilliers Stefan Lotz |
| author_sort | Emmanuel Nahayo |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Geomagnetic storms are space weather events that result in a temporary disturbance of the earth’s magnetosphere caused by a solar wind that interacts with the earth’s magnetic field. We examined more closely how some southern African magnetic observatories responded to the Saint Patrick’s Day storm using local K-indices. We show how this network of observatories may be utilised to model induced electric field, which is useful for the monitoring of geomagnetically induced anomalous currents capable of damaging power distribution infrastructure. We show an example of the correlation between a modelled induced electric field and measured geomagnetically induced currents in southern Africa. The data show that there are differences between global and local indices, which vary with the phases of the storm. We show the latitude dependence of geomagnetic activity and demonstrate that the direction of the variation is different for the X and Y components.
Significance:
• The importance of ground-based data in space weather studies is demonstrated.
• We show how SANSA’s geomagnetic network may be utilised to model induced electric field, which is useful for the monitoring of geomagnetically induced anomalous currents capable of damaging power distribution infrastructure.
Open data set:
http://www.intermagnet.org/data-donnee/download-eng.php |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T07:43:23Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-cf5acb70c2f649729d5b4fd576e9699d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1996-7489 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T07:43:23Z |
| publishDate | 2019-01-01 |
| publisher | Academy of Science of South Africa |
| record_format | Article |
| series | South African Journal of Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-cf5acb70c2f649729d5b4fd576e9699d2022-12-22T01:15:31ZengAcademy of Science of South AfricaSouth African Journal of Science1996-74892019-01-011151/210.17159/sajs.2019/52045204Observations from SANSA’s geomagnetic network during the Saint Patrick’s Day storm of 17–18 March 2015Emmanuel Nahayo0Pieter B. Kotzé1Pierre J. Cilliers2Stefan Lotz3South African National Space Agency (SANSA), Hermanus, South AfricaSouth African National Space Agency (SANSA), Hermanus, South AfricaSouth African National Space Agency (SANSA), Hermanus, South AfricaSouth African National Space Agency (SANSA), Hermanus, South AfricaGeomagnetic storms are space weather events that result in a temporary disturbance of the earth’s magnetosphere caused by a solar wind that interacts with the earth’s magnetic field. We examined more closely how some southern African magnetic observatories responded to the Saint Patrick’s Day storm using local K-indices. We show how this network of observatories may be utilised to model induced electric field, which is useful for the monitoring of geomagnetically induced anomalous currents capable of damaging power distribution infrastructure. We show an example of the correlation between a modelled induced electric field and measured geomagnetically induced currents in southern Africa. The data show that there are differences between global and local indices, which vary with the phases of the storm. We show the latitude dependence of geomagnetic activity and demonstrate that the direction of the variation is different for the X and Y components. Significance: • The importance of ground-based data in space weather studies is demonstrated. • We show how SANSA’s geomagnetic network may be utilised to model induced electric field, which is useful for the monitoring of geomagnetically induced anomalous currents capable of damaging power distribution infrastructure. Open data set: http://www.intermagnet.org/data-donnee/download-eng.phphttps://www.sajs.co.za/article/view/5204geomagnetic variationsgeomagnetic stormsgeomagnetically induced currents |
| spellingShingle | Emmanuel Nahayo Pieter B. Kotzé Pierre J. Cilliers Stefan Lotz Observations from SANSA’s geomagnetic network during the Saint Patrick’s Day storm of 17–18 March 2015 South African Journal of Science geomagnetic variations geomagnetic storms geomagnetically induced currents |
| title | Observations from SANSA’s geomagnetic network during the Saint Patrick’s Day storm of 17–18 March 2015 |
| title_full | Observations from SANSA’s geomagnetic network during the Saint Patrick’s Day storm of 17–18 March 2015 |
| title_fullStr | Observations from SANSA’s geomagnetic network during the Saint Patrick’s Day storm of 17–18 March 2015 |
| title_full_unstemmed | Observations from SANSA’s geomagnetic network during the Saint Patrick’s Day storm of 17–18 March 2015 |
| title_short | Observations from SANSA’s geomagnetic network during the Saint Patrick’s Day storm of 17–18 March 2015 |
| title_sort | observations from sansa s geomagnetic network during the saint patrick s day storm of 17 18 march 2015 |
| topic | geomagnetic variations geomagnetic storms geomagnetically induced currents |
| url | https://www.sajs.co.za/article/view/5204 |
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