Magnetic storms can damage power lines on Earth – the line becomes overloaded due to fluctuations in the magnetic field, which can cause overheating and breakage of transformers. About this “socialbites.ca” said the head of the near-Earth space physics laboratory of the Institute of Earth Physics. O.Yu. Schmidt RAS, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Vyacheslav Pilipenko.
“Large-scale grounded systems are affected – for example power lines (power lines). As taught in school, all changes in the magnetic field cause an induction current in the conductor. Therefore, with strong disturbances of the geomagnetic field, a current is induced in the cables, which experts call geoinduction. Because the transmission line is a very large system, the current can reach values as large as several hundred amperes. And high-voltage transformers operate at 50 Hz and are not designed for such a semi-direct current. The transformer does not work, overheating begins, the transmitted current is disturbed and even the transformer may fail.
Pilipenko added that Canada faced a similar situation in 1989 – almost a quarter of the country was left without electricity as the main industrial transformer burned down due to an extreme magnetic storm.
“Such a high voltage transformer cannot simply be changed, it cannot be stored in storage. Therefore, when the American Geophysical Union compiled a list of natural disasters that are most dangerous to modern civilization, space weather was in fourth place, ”said the author.
In addition, devices in space such as satellites can be damaged during magnetic storms.
Read more about why magnetic storms occur and whether they can affect human health – in material “socialbites.ca”.