Bibliography of Historical Geomagnetic Data Reports

In order to determine the extent of historical data publications at the NGDC / World Data Center-A for Solid Earth Geophysics, a digital inventory was begun in 1992. The main emphasis of the project was the inventory of data-related reports published prior to 1972. The intent was to aid in the retrospective modeling of the main magnetic field. Publications concerning crustal anomalies and observatory magnetograms were not targeted for this project. The results of this effort are contained in a digital bibliographic data base, partially reproduced in Report SE-51 Bibliography of Historical Geomagnetic Main Field Survey and Secular Variation Reports at the World Data Center-A for Solid Earth Geophysics, August 1993. A sample of the titles inventoried is available .

We suggest researchers interested in learning more about the available publications request a copy of Report SE-51. The digital bibliography is also available for a copying fee.

Many of the reports abstracted in the bibliography were printed over a century ago and are in a severe state of deterioration. In order to preserve the content of these reports, WDC-A is digitally imaging these older books. The digital images of the books are being written to 3480 archive tape in PCX format. In this format, these books are more readily available to researchers studying the historic main magnetic field.