Monitoring Space Weather at BGS

BGS Geomagnetism has a number of resources ('in house' as well as public domain) for monitoring space weather and the geomagnetic hazard. Here are examples of our own data and products - click on the images for larger versions. Some links are not live as they may be of commercial significance.

BGS operate six observatories worldwide and records 3-component vector data and total field data at a one-second sample rate. These are filtered to one-minute data and used in the majority of our data products, as well as for use through INTERMAGNET. One-second data is also available for academic or commercial use. These data also have navigation applications.

Minute Mean Daily Magnetogram

One Second Data

Hourly Standard Deviation (HSD)

We monitor hourly standard deviations (HSD) in the X (North) and Y (East) components of the geomagnetic field. These are automatically updated every hour and made available to Scottish Power shortly thereafter. These data have GIC applications.

Real-time Estimates of Global Activity Indices

Ap is a daily mean global activity index and BGS produces an estimate of Ap which is updated hourly, using data from around the globe. We also produce a noon-noon version of the 'standard' daily index as this covers a time span of relevance to the UK, given that geomagnetic activity often occurs over local midnight. The standard three-hour global ap index is also estimated. These data have relevance for example in satellite orbit management.