EAGER: Ideas Lab on Geomagnetically Induced Currents; Golden, Colorado; Mid to Late September 2022

University Corporation For Atmospheric Res, Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

In partnership with the NSF, NASA, and the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center, UCAR Cooperative Programs for the Advancement of Earth System Science (CPAESS) will support an Ideas Lab to offer multiple perspectives from various scientific and engineering backgrounds to provide innovative approaches for new and bold ideas for better prediction and mitigation of Geomagnetically Induced Currents (GIC) that affect power grid operations, pipelines, and other technological systems involving long conducting wires. The main goal of the Ideas Lab is to bring together a diverse group of researchers, including modelers and experimentalists, to form interdisciplinary teams that will develop innovative and transformative approaches to strengthen the Research to Operations (R2O) program on GICs. The Ideas Lab will support research and engineering technology development efforts that will lead to new opportunities in geospace and Earth sciences to better predict and mitigate GIC effects. It will also involve innovative approaches in educating, training, and developing a cross-disciplinary workforce with the relevant expertise spanning physical understanding of the coupled Sun-Earth system, geological formation of the solid earth, and engineering and operation of ground power grids and transformers. UCAR CPAESS will host and KnowInnovation will facilitate the Ideas Lab for GICs that will bring together approximately thirty-six scientists to look at formulating new techniques and technologies to better predict and mitigate GIC effects. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.