Observation of electric currents in the Alaska oil pipeline resulting from auroral electrojet current sources

Currents in the 1.28 × 103 km Alaska oil pipeline, induced from the ionospheric, auroral electrojet, were measured at three sites, near Fairbanks, Paxson and Valdez, Alaska, using a gradient configuration of two fluxgate magnetometers. The observed pipeline current magnitudes, which reached 50 A during times of mild geomagnetic activity, displayed a linear relationship with the electric earth potential. Using the induction relationship between the electric and magnetic fields and the typical spectral composition of the geomagnetic field at high latitudes, I obtained a spectral appearance of the current that shows a maximum in the range of 4.5- to 10-min period. Near Fairbanks the pipeline current amplitudes, I (Amperes), could be represented, approximately, by I = 0.65 BxT−0.5, where Bx(nT) is the north—south geomagnetic field variation amplitude and T (min) is its apparent period. There is much less pipelines current at the sites south of Fairbanks. A previously established relationship between the local electric field and the planetary geomagnetic activity index, Ap, permitted a prediction of the pipeline current surge amplitudes in the Fairbanks region as approximately I = 5.0 Ap. Current surges larger than 500 A may be expected rather often in the Alaska pipeline during large geomagnetic storms.