Here are the US cities most vulnerable to space weather

• Washington, D.C., and Milwaukee are two of the most vulnerable U.S. cities to space weather, according to scientists from the British Geological Survey.
• The scientists are still unsure of all the reasons why these cities are more vulnerable, but their transformers are highly connected to the network. However, there are other factors that may also play a role.
• Some of the other reasons that might make these cities vulnerable include the electrical conductivity of the ground, the physical construction of the power grid in those areas, or the location of the auroral currents in the sky.

The Royal Astronomical Society published this original article on July 19, 2024. Edits by EarthSky.

The US cities most vulnerable to space weather

Several cities in the United States – including the nation’s capital – have power grids particularly vulnerable to the threat of space weather. But experts are still trying to understand why. Researchers at the British Geological Survey (BGS) found that certain regions of the U.S. are more at risk from geomagnetic storms. These are storms that occur when the sun spits out solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs).

CMEs are bursts of gas and magnetic fields which erupt into space from the solar atmosphere. They can cause geomagnetic storms that have the potential to damage infrastructure both in Earth’s orbit and on its surface, ranging from satellites to underground pipelines.

Two of the cities with power grids found to be most vulnerable to the effects of such space weather are Washington, D.C., and Milwaukee. That’s according to Lauren Orr of the BGS, who presented her findings at last week’s National Astronomy Meeting at the University of Hull. Orr said:

We have identified certain regions of the U.S. (the Washington, D.C., area and Milwaukee), which are repeatedly appearing as ‘highly connected’ in our network. Hence they are possibly regions particularly vulnerable to the effects of space weather and may benefit from further monitoring.

Orr added there were “many reasons” the cities may be more at risk to the impact of geomagnetic storms. Those include:

… electrical conductivity of the ground, the physical construction of the power grid in those areas, or the location of the auroral currents in the sky.

However, she cautioned that further work is necessary to investigate what about these areas makes them so-called supernodes in the network.

Space storms’ impacts on Earth

Severe space weather is of growing concern to scientists across the globe. In fact, it’s now considered to be as likely to occur as a pandemic, with an impact that is equivalent to extreme temperatures or flooding.

Geomagnetically induced currents (GICs) are one such hazard that can cause damage to power lines and transformers. In the past, widespread blackouts have resulted from transformer damage during geomagnetic storms. Orr explained:

Network science is now a common tool to quantify the resilience and robustness of power grids to both deliberate attacks and those caused by random failures or natural disasters.

Networks and nodes

A network is made up of nodes and edges, which could be anything from computers linked via the internet, to friends on Facebook, or transformers linked via cables. Orr said:

Having previously had great success using network science to uncover patterns within the auroral electrojet, we would again combine the fields of network science and space weather to capture the network response to GICs.

By applying known reliability parameters to the GIC network we can identify areas or transformers at high risk.

This is important, she added, because:

… these areas could be modified during a geomagnetic storm to prevent transformers burning out and to limit damage to the wider power grid.

The work has been carried out in collaboration with Sandra Chapman, of the University of Warwick, and Ryan McGranaghan, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

Bottom line: Scientists have identified some U.S. cities that may be more vulnerable to space weather due to how connected their transformers are to the network.

Via Royal Astronomical Society

Watch: Will solar flares take down our electric grids?

Read more: Geomagnetic storms: Will you lose power where you live?

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