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Magnetic observatories

Magnetic observatories

Address

1 rue Jussieu 75005 Paris

Missions

The IPGP Magnetic Observatories Service (service des observatoires magnétiques) provides ground-based observations of the Earth’s magnetic field as well as derived products. It is part of the Bureau Central de Magnétisme Terrestre (BCMT) which is a National Observation Service (Service National d’Observation, SNO) of the CNRS-INSU managed by the IPGP.

Network

The Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP) is in charge of eleven magnetic observatories, installed and run in cooperation with french and foreign institutions:

They are part of INTERMAGNET, a world-wide network of observatories, monitoring the Earth’s magnetic field.

Observations and data

The observations made are of high precision and high long-term stability. The observatories provide real-time, quasi-definitive and definitive data, which are distributed as data in seconds, average over one minute or over longer periods (hour, day, month, year).

These data are used primarily for research activities (dynamics of the Earth’s liquid core, conductivity of the mantle, structure of the crust, dynamics of the ionosphere and the magnetosphere), but also as orientation references for industry and as tools for space weather monitoring.

All data are distributed under the terms of the licence Creative Commons BY-NC 4.0