Operations of the World Data Centre for Geomagnetism (Edinburgh)

The British Geological Survey has operated a World Data Centre for Geomagnetism since 1966. We hold geomagnetic time-series from around 280 observatories worldwide, for a number of time- resolutions from one-minute to annual, along with various magnetic survey, model and activity index data. The operation of this dynamic data centre contributes towards global geomagnetic field modelling efforts and provides a valuable service to the worldwide research community. We describe the operation of this data centre detailing the range of data held and our data collection, storage and distribution processes and infrastructure. We describe the quality control checks we apply to incoming data and our work interacting with other data centres for geomagnetism to share data and improve the overall consistency of data held. We also demonstrate how we are developing the metadata associated with our datasets and note the current issues around establishing metadata standards for geomagnetism.