How to submit data to the WDC for Geomagnetism, Edinburgh

The World Data Centre for Geomagnetism (Edinburgh) accepts specific types of measurements of the Earth's magnetic field. These are:

• Definitive full-field magnetic observatory data and associated metadata
• Magnetic survey records

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Magnetic observatory data

The World Centre for Geomagnetism, Edinburgh accepts definitive magnetic observatory data from any magnetic observatory operating worldwide. The data set should be an annual submission of a year (or years) of definitive full-field magnetic observatory results. These should be from a magnetic observatory operating according to the community guidance e.g. IAGA Guide for Magnetic Measurements and Observatory Practice

Data formats

We would prefer to receive data in IAGA-2002 exchange format, INTERMAGNET archive format or WDC format. If your data is submitted in a different format, we will store the original data and convert it to one of the geomagnetic community formats for distribution.

We accept annual, hourly, minute, second time-series data. If any time cadence is missing, and it is valid to do so, we will compute the data sets i.e. if we receive minute means we may calculate the relevant hourly means and annual means from these data.

We do not accept:

• Data from variometers (no absolute control)
• Provisional data - i.e. recent recordings that may be revised later with provisional baselines and limited quality control.

Data Quality

Responsibility for the quality of the data lies with the data provider. The WDC for Geomagnetism, Edinburgh will perform a data quality check on data during submission. Any issues will be reported back to the data provider for their attention. Data does not need to meet a specific quality standard for submission. Data file format must be understandable for ingestion into the WDC.

One role of the WDC is to provide a home for data providers who chose not to join INTERMAGNET or do not meet the requirements for membership.

Any known issues with a dataset will be noted in the observatory's metadata.

Relationship with INTERMAGNET

INTERMAGNET is an organisation who publish definitive data from a network of geomagnetic observatories that meet the required standards of instrumentation and data quality required for membership. INTERMAGNET observatories do not need to submit data directly to the WDC. When the definitive data are made available after the completion of data quality checking it will be ingested into the WDC for Geomagnetism, Edinburgh.

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Magnetic observatory metadata

The WDC for Geomagnetism, Edinburgh engage with the geomagnetic community to grow our data collections. We send out an annual 'call for data' email to operating observatories and work closely with WDS network member INTERMAGNET to ingest data from their associated observatories.

We maintain a list of observatory information on behalf of IAGA Division V - Observatories working group .

We aim to improve the metadata associated with observatory data and are working with the geomagnetism community, INTERMAGNET and EPOS to advance this. We aim to improve the ways in which our data are available by developing web service applications, such as our Data Portal .

We will soon publish a new metadata tool to allow observatory operators to review and update the metadata held for their observatories. We welcome any support in improving the metadata records to improve this important community resource.

We also hold an extensive collection of physical records of observatory yearbooks and associated publications. These can be searched for here. Access to physical records is by arrangement.

You can submit physical publications to:
World Data Centre for Geomagnetism
British Geological Survey
The Lyell Centre
Research Avenue South
Edinburgh
EH14 4AP
United Kingdom

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Magnetic Survey data

The World Data Centre (WDC) for Geomagnetism also hold extensive records for magnetic surveys by land, repeat station data and aeromagnetic and marine surveys.

We welcome new submission of these data types.

The survey data format available on our website is described here.

For repeat station data we do not have a universal template, as different countries follow different conventions. We can advise on a suitable format for new observations.