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Alaska Science Forum, UAF Geophysical Institute (gi.alaska.edu)

Investigator (STEP I), run 2026-10-08. Saved page text (evidence trail, not for publication) is in research/pages/. Findings are leads, not verdicts.

Searched

  • Google: geomagnetically induced currents Trans-Alaska pipeline amperes aurora measured
  • Fetched: /alaska-science-forum/auroral-electrojets ; /alaska-science-forum/aurora-makes-waves-ground-too

Found

  • T. Neil Davis, "Auroral Electrojets" (24 Dec 1998): "Flowing mostly eastwest at altitudes near 100 km (60 miles), the currents can be as large as a half million amperes ... Currents induced in the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and other pipelines can promote corrosion ... the auroral electrojet currents induce so much current in long electrical transmission lines that power outages can result when protective breakers are tripped."
  • "The Aurora Makes Waves on the Ground, Too" (18 Aug 1982): "During an intense auroral display, an electrical current of up to several million megawatts is discharged in the ionosphere"; ground voltage differences "can be as much as 10 volts per kilometer"; during the 13 July [1982] storm "current surges in the power line fluctuated as much as 10 amperes" (Fairbanks-Healy line, GVEA Gold Hill substation). The "several million megawatts" is quoted as printed. The reviewers should check it against standard estimates of auroral power ([memory, medium] tens to hundreds of GW during substorms).
  • Snippets (not opened): Campbell (1978) on induced currents in the Alaska pipeline, "800 miles (1300 km) from about 62 to 69 geomagnetic latitude"; "pipeline current magnitudes, which reached 50 A during times of mild geomagnetic activity" (ResearchGate); Merritt (1979), "Measurement of the auroral induced current in the Trans-Alaska Pipeline", ASME J. Energy Resources Technology.

Bearing on the claims

  • Claims 5 and 6: auroral-zone currents do reach ground conductors and are measured in amperes (10-50 A) on lines hundreds of km long. The electrojet's own current (up to about 500,000 A) brackets the author's "well over 300,000 A". These are the measured, mainstream counterparts to the "auroral power accumulator". The physicist can use them for an energy-budget check of the 60 GW figure and of what a ground screen could collect.