Rescue of Old Analogue Magnetograms

by Converting to Digital Images

An ICSU Grant-2003 Project

List of FSU Historic Magnetograms

 
Observatory
Geographic coordinates
IRT (Irkutsk, 1949-1954)             
52.17° N      104.45° E
KZN (Kazan, 1951-1957)         
55.83° N       48.85° E
MOS (Moscow, 1944-1957)          
55.48° N       37.31° E
ODE (Odessa, 1946-1956)         
46.78° N       30.88° E
SRE (Srednikan, 1936-1957)      
62.44° N      152.31° E
SVD (Sverdlovsk, 1949–1957)     
56.73° N       61.07° E
TKT (Tashkent, 1943,1944,1950,1952-1957)          
41.33° N       69.62° E
VLA (Vladivostok, 1934-1948)    
43.68° N      132.17° E
YSS (Yuzhno Sakhalinsk, 1932-1946,1953)  
46.95° N      142.72° E
 

Standard (20 mm/hr) magnetograms from the stations listed above were converted to digital images in the World Data Center for Solar-Terrestrial Physics (Moscow, Russia) with a support from the ICSU grant (see below). Other magnetograms converted to digital images under that grant (and other sources) can be found in the World Data Center in Kyoto, Japan: http://swdcft49.kugi.kyoto-u.ac.jp/film/.

 

To covert Geographic Coordinates of these stations to Corrected Geomagnetic Coordinates for a given year use the GEO-CGM calculator.

 
 
 
 
 



 
 
 
 
 

In 2002, the Division VGeomagnetic Observatories, Surveys and Analyses” of the International Association for Geomagnetism and Aeronomy (IAGA) embarked on a new initiative to create an “Old Analogue Magnetograms Inventory”, where it was proposed to the worldwide geomagnetic community to begin converting old analogue magnetograms to the digital, computer-readable images.

 

In 2003, the International Council for Science (ICSU) awarded a proposal put forward by IAGA to initiate a "Rescue of old analogue magnetograms by converting to digital images". This project has successfully been completed and reported back to ICSU:

 

The IUGG Electronic Journal

Volume 4 No. 4 (April 1, 2004)

2003 ICSU Grant Report

 

The IUGG International Association for Geomagnetism and Aeronomy (IAGA) received an award of $35,000 from the International Council of Science (ICSU) in 2003 for their proposal “Rescue of old analogue magnetograms by converting to digital images”. The project's outcome is that 177 station-years of 64,650 of old and historic magnetograms from 9 Russian, two Indian, and one German magnetic observatory are now converted to digital images, available at http://apollo.wdcb.ru/historic/ and http://swdcft49.kugi.kyoto-u.ac.jp/film/. The stations chosen were selected from a pre-IGY Catalog of Analogue Geomagnetic Data complied from the time period 1841-1960, and the most rare magnetograms (those existing in one copy only) were digitized first. The magnetogram conversion technique was developed by a team at Kyoto University, Japan. The hardware purchased with the project support is now available for the staff at the World Data Centres in India, Russia, and Japan for the follow-on conversion of analogue magnetograms into digital images in their routine work, as well as for specific rescue projects.

 


Web page curator: Dr. E. Kharin