An Approach to Model Earth Conductivity Structures with Lateral Changes for Calculating Induced Currents and Geoelectric Fields during Geomagnetic Disturbances

Figure 5

Contour diagrams of induced currents and electric fields. (a) and (c) are results from 2D FEM. (b) and (d) are results from 3D FEM. These results agree very well with each other. The currents in the relatively high conductive layers are larger. The skin effect can be seen from (a) and (b) where the currents attenuate as the depth increases. The electric field is discontinuous at the interface between the two conductivity structures.

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)