During the magnetic storm, the process of high-energy particles settling and Joule heating makes the lower atmosphere expand, which leads to the increase of the density of the upper atmosphere. Changes in the density, composition and wind field of the upper atmosphere will cause ionospheric storms; When the magnetosphere is severely disturbed, the hot plasma in the magnetotail accelerates to move towards the earth.
Forming thermal plasma injection; Charged particles settle along the magnetic field lines and bombard the upper atmosphere to form colored aurora; During the magnetosphere disturbance, electrons in the magnetosphere may be accelerated to very high energy, resulting in a global phenomenon of high-energy electron enhancement-high-energy electron explosion.
Impact on power grid
The changing geomagnetic field will produce surface potential (ESP) lasting from several minutes to several hours, ranging from several volts to more than ten volts per kilometer in areas with high soil resistivity. However, in high-voltage and ultra-high-voltage transmission systems, because the neutral point of the power grid transformer is directly grounded, the electrostatic precipitator will generate geomagnetic induced current (GIC) in the loop formed by the east-west and long-distance transmission lines and the earth.
It is easy to cause half-wave saturation of large transformers and shorten their service life. In extreme cases, it will burn and cause permanent damage. The global synchronization of magnetic storm will saturate hundreds of transformers in the whole power grid at the same time, causing some protection devices to trip and other misoperation, resulting in a serious voltage drop in the power supply system, which will lead to a large-scale power outage.