1.3. History and Status of INTERMAGNET

The possibility of worldwide data communication between magnetic observatories was first raised seriously at the Workshop on Magnetic Observatory Instruments, held in Ottawa, Canada, in August 1986. Further discussions, particularly between the British Geological Survey (BGS) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) took place in May 1987 at the Nordic Comparison Meeting held at Chambon la Forêt, France. A pilot scheme between BGS and USGS was described at the sessions of Division V of IAGA during the XIXth General Assembly of IUGG in Vancouver, Canada, in August 1987, with the proposal that the geomagnetic community should adopt automatic observatories with satellite communications as its mode of operation for the future. INTERMAGNET embodies the proposal to extend worldwide the network of observatories communicating in this way. A successful pilot scheme operated during 1989, with the UK, USA, and Canada transmitting and receiving at 12 minute or 1 hour intervals geomagnetic data recorded every minute. As a result of the pilot scheme, the IAGA Executive Committee endorsed INTERMAGNET. The Study of the Earth’s Deep Interior (SEDI) Steering Committee has also endorsed INTERMAGNET.

At present the observatories shown in APPENDIX B are transmitting daily over the Internet, or through satellites to Geomagnetic Information Node (GINs). More stations are coming online rapidly. GINs are now operating in Edinburgh (BGS), Golden (USGS), Kyoto (Kyoto U.), Ottawa (GSC), and Paris (IPGP).