OR/16/030 IUGG 2015

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Thomson, Alan W P. 2016. Geomagnetism review 2015. British Geological Survey Internal Report, OR/16/030.                                                
Ciaran Beggan (left) and Sarah Reay (right) at the 26th Meeting of the IUGG General Assembly Meeting held in Prague, Czech Republic, June 2015.
A selection of BGS scientific posters presented at IUGG, June 2015.

The quadrennial meeting of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics is an opportunity to present BGS research at the highest scientific level and interact with the global community of geomagnetic and geophysical scientists. Contributions made by BGS at the 2015 meeting are summarised here.

IUGG and IAGA

Every four years, the General Assembly of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) is convened, bringing together the nine scientific associations, of which the International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy (IAGA) is a member. The 2015 Assembly was held in Prague, Czech Republic in June with over four thousand geophysicists attending during the ten day period of the Assembly.

As the conference was in Europe this year (previously Melbourne, Australia), eight BGS staff were able to attend. During the conference BGS contributions included nine talks and five posters across as many sessions at the conference. Other contributions included the co-chairing of three sessions and, as Alan Thomson is currently chair of the division, the running of the IAGA Division V business meeting on observatories, data, indices and modelling. David Kerridge also gave a prestigious invited Union lecture on the role of geomagnetic monitoring in understanding Earth system processes.

The science topics on which we presented included:

  • Magnetic observatory data processing and its real-world application including making surface electric field measurements
  • Improved techniques for main field and secular variation modelling using core surface fluid flow models
  • Machine learning algorithms applied to forecasting space weather changes in real-time
  • Understanding the impact of space weather processes on grounded technology structures (e.g. Geomagnetically Induced Currents)
  • Public outreach initiatives such as the BGS Raspberry Pi magnetometer
  • Research arising from commercial activities undertaken by BGS such as new observatories and analysis of external errors in magnetic field extrapolation

These oral presentations and posters benefited from collaborations with other UK institutions, universities and industrial partners, including the Universities of Edinburgh and Lancaster, Halliburton Sperry Drilling, and international partners in NOAA (USA), DTU (Denmark), GFZ (Germany) and IPGP (Paris).

Both David Kerridge and former member of staff John Riddick were presented with certificates and medals for long, outstanding service to the international scientific community.

Finally, Alan Thomson was elected by the IAGA Council of Delegates to the IAGA Executive Committee.