Equatorial geomagnetically induced currents due to space electromagnetic perturbations

Geomagnetically induced currents is the ground end effect manifested by the space electromagnetic perturbations. It is potentially harmful to the ground surface infrastructures and most of the attention has been focused on the power network failures. Typically, GIC is a special concern in high latitude region during a strong geomagnetic storm since its effects are the most intense and most frequent in this region, whereas in low latitude region, especially in equatorial region, less GIC investigation has been conducted due to the lack of awareness. However, the destructive of transformer of low latitude region in 2002, has provided the evidence that the space electromagnetic effect in this region shouldn¿t be neglected. Here, in order to address the gap, the study intends: to characterize the ground magnetic variations and the time derivative of magnetic field, dB/dt in function to different latitudes; to identify the Earth¿s current systems that influence the ground induced current in equatorial regions; to produce an empirical characterization of equatorial time derivative of magnetic field dB/dt as GIC indicator.