Abstract

"Space Weather" refers to electromagnetic and particle conditions in our space environment that can disturb ground-based or space-borne technology and even endanger human health or life. Systems prone to space weather impacts include satellites, telecommunication, navigation, aviation, electric power transmission, etc. Thus, space weather is a risk to the infrastructure of the society, and its importance continuously increases since interruptions of technological systems may lead to large economical and other losses. The origin of space weather is in solar activity. From the Sun the effect is carried by the solar wind, which interacts with the Earth's magnetosphere-ionosphere system. Space weather thus constitutes a complicated chain of phenomena from the Sun to the Earth's surface. Research of space weather aims at understanding the physical processes involved with the final goal to establish and develop capabilities of forecasting adverse space weather conditions and thus to minimise space weather risk.

Although "space weather" is a modern term observations of space weather phenomena date back to the mid-1800s when the first telegraph systems were disturbed: at times the systems were inoperational while at other times the equipment even worked without a battery. "Geomagnetically induced currents" (GIC), flowing in electric power transmission grids and oil and gas pipelines etc. are ground effects of space weather. In power systems, GIC may saturate transformers with different harmful consequences, and pipelines can suffer from problems associated with corrosion. The most famous GIC event occurred in Qubec, Canada, in March 1989, during which six million people were without electricity for nine hours and whose total costs have been estimated to amount to 13.2 MCAD. Another example is the electric blackout in southern Sweden at the end of October 2003, which left 50000 people without electricity for tens of minutes.

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