British Geological Survey - it's not just about rocks and mountains

Scientists continue to uncover new facts about the Sun and the way it affects the space environment of the Earth. It might all seem a bit remote from the ‘solid’ realm of valleys and mountains, deserts, fields and oceans as studied by the British Geological Survey (BGS). But our understanding of what happens down on the ground isn’t complete unless we include the atmosphere—and even outer space—in our explorations.

There is a growing awareness within governments and industry of the ‘space weather’ risk. In response, a group of dedicated space weather service providers has recently emerged, which, in the UK, includes the BGS: a scientific institute that has been providing space weather services since 1990. BGS forecasts solar and geomagnetic activity for the European Space Agency’s Operations Centre (ESOC) in Germany. These forecasts are incorporated into ESOC models to predict changes in the density of the upper atmosphere.

Atmospheric density change, particularly following big geomagnetic storms, causes increased friction on low altitude satellites, slowing them down and even, in the longer term, threatening to drag them back to earth. With the forecasts delivered by BGS, the satellite operators find that fewer orbit manoeuvres are required, and precious on-board fuel is saved, thus prolonging the life spans of their valuable space ‘assets.’

BGS also operates a real–time geomagnetic data service for the oil and gas industry. Many well-paths are drilled from modern drilling platforms, a few kilometres vertically and perhaps ten or more kilometres horizontally, away from the rig. Accurate knowledge of the drilling direction is confirmed using magnetic measurements: the most cost-effective means of safely directing a drill bit towards its hydrocarbon harvest.

More recently BGS has developed services to help assess and manage the space weather risk to the UK electrical power grid. Simulating how the grid might respond to hypothetical space weather events, identifying potential weak points, and working out how to deal with problems before they can happen—all this helps reduce the risk of thousands of households being plunged into darkness for real.