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Extreme Bad Weather, Large Atmospheric Electric Field Fluctuations and Anomalous Changes in the High Voltage Electric Power Network in Thrace, North-East Greece, during the Solar Activity and the Magnetic Superstorm of March 2012
Anagnostopoulos, G.; Karkanis, A.; Kampatagis, A.; Marhavilas, P.; Menesidou, S.-A.; Efthymiadis, D.; Keskinis, S.; Ouzounov, D.; Hatzigeorgiu, N.; Danikas, M. Ground Electric Field, Atmospheric Weather and Electric Grid Variations in Northeast Greece Influenced by the March 2012 Solar Activity and the Moderate to Intense Geomagnetic Storms. Remote Sens.2024, 16, 998.
Anagnostopoulos, G.; Karkanis, A.; Kampatagis, A.; Marhavilas, P.; Menesidou, S.-A.; Efthymiadis, D.; Keskinis, S.; Ouzounov, D.; Hatzigeorgiu, N.; Danikas, M. Ground Electric Field, Atmospheric Weather and Electric Grid Variations in Northeast Greece Influenced by the March 2012 Solar Activity and the Moderate to Intense Geomagnetic Storms. Remote Sens. 2024, 16, 998.
Anagnostopoulos, G.; Karkanis, A.; Kampatagis, A.; Marhavilas, P.; Menesidou, S.-A.; Efthymiadis, D.; Keskinis, S.; Ouzounov, D.; Hatzigeorgiu, N.; Danikas, M. Ground Electric Field, Atmospheric Weather and Electric Grid Variations in Northeast Greece Influenced by the March 2012 Solar Activity and the Moderate to Intense Geomagnetic Storms. Remote Sens.2024, 16, 998.
Anagnostopoulos, G.; Karkanis, A.; Kampatagis, A.; Marhavilas, P.; Menesidou, S.-A.; Efthymiadis, D.; Keskinis, S.; Ouzounov, D.; Hatzigeorgiu, N.; Danikas, M. Ground Electric Field, Atmospheric Weather and Electric Grid Variations in Northeast Greece Influenced by the March 2012 Solar Activity and the Moderate to Intense Geomagnetic Storms. Remote Sens. 2024, 16, 998.
Abstract
In a recent paper, we extended previous studies on solar-terrestrial relationships by investigating the origin of the March 2012 heatwave in northeast USA. In the present study we check the possible relationship of solar activity with the early March 2012 bad weather in northeast Thrace, Greece. To this end, we examined data from various remote sensing instrumentation monitoring the Sun (SDO satellite), the Interplanetary Space (ACE satellite), the Earth’s magnetosphere (Earth based measurements, NOAA-19 satellite), the top of the clouds (TERRA and AQUA satellites) and the near ground atmosphere. Our comparative data analysis suggests that: (i) the winter-like weather (rainfall, fast winds, decreased temperature) in Thrace started on 6 March 2012, on the same day as the heatwave starting in USA, (ii) during the March 2012 winter-like event in Thrace (6-15 March), the ACE satellite recorded enhanced fluxes of solar energetic particles (SEPs), while SOHO and PAMELA recorded solar protons at very high energies (> 500 MeV), (iii) Thrace experienced particularly intense cyclonic circulation, during periods of magnetic storms on 8 - 10 and 12-13 March, which occurred after the arrival at ACE of two interplanetary shock waves, on March 8 and March 11, respectively, (iv) at the beginning of the two above mentioned periods large atmospheric electric fields were recorded, with values ranging between ~-2000V/m - ~1800V/m on 8 March, (v) the winter-like 8-10 March 2012 weather occurred after the detection of the main SEP event related with a coronal mass ejection released in the interplanetary space as a result of intense solar flare activity observed by SDO on 7 March 2012, (vi) the 8-10 March weather was related with a deep drop of ~630C in the cloud top temperature measured by MODIS/TERRA, which favors strong precipitation. Finally, we analyzed data from the electric power network in Thrace (~410N) and we found, for the first time sudden voltage changes of ~3.5kV in the electric grid in Greece, during the decay phase of the March 2012 superstorm. We discuss the winter-like March 2012 event in Thrace in terms of solar cosmic ray influence on the low troposphere mediated by positive NAO. Finally, we infer that the novel finding of the geomagnetic effects on the electric power grid in Thrace may open a new window into space weather applications research.
Keywords
Remote Sensing; Space Weather; Exterme Events; Solar-Terrestrial relationsnsip; Weather prediction; Atmospheric Electric Field; Geomagneticallt induced lectric currents
Subject
Physical Sciences, Other
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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