Analysis of geomagnetically induced currents over the continental United States

Human technology is vulnerable to space weather, a natural hazard. High-voltage electric power transmission grids constitute one of the most critical man-made technological systems vulnerable to space weather driven geomagnetically induced currents (GICs). In this study, we perform an analysis of (1) measured GIC data collected at mid-latitudes by U.S. power utilities during the period from 2010 to 2021, and (2) the corresponding geomagnetic field information for each event. The study includes a statistical analysis of all events and an overview of the top three highest GIC recordings in the data. We show that roughly 80% of the events are associated with the main phase of geomagnetic storms, while about 20% are associated with sudden storm commencement.