A Statistical Study on the Geomagnetically Induced Current Events Driven by Earth-directed Full-Halo Coronal Mass Ejections

Abstract Solar activities can cause the anomalies of electric power transmission systems, especially, for an extra-long distance transmission system. Using the data of coronal mass ejection (CME) from SOHO/LASCO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory/Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph), and the data of the geomagnetically induced current (GIC) and geomagnetic storm from the North China Electric Power University and Finnish Meteorological Institute, respectively, we analyze some important observational features and physical properties of the earth-directed halo CMEs associated with the GIC events. After classifying the observed halo CMEs according to their symmetry, it is found that the halo CMEs associated with GIC events are mainly the 3 types: completely symmetric, brightness-asymmetric, and outline-asymmetric. The geomagnetically induced current events driven by the three different types of halo CMEs have different characteristics in the intensity, duration, and period. We find that the brightness-asymmetric halo CMEs are most likely to cause the major damage to the transmission systems. And that the geomagnetically induced current has also a good correlation with the time variation of geomagnetic field.