International Geomagnetic Reference Field: the 12th generation

Erwan Thébault (1) , Christopher C Finlay (2) , Ciarán D Beggan (3) , Patrick Alken (4, 5) , Julien J Aubert (6) , Olivier Barrois (7) , François Bertrand (8) , Tatiana Bondar (9) , Axel Boness (8) , Laura Brocco (6) , Elisabeth C Canet (10) , Aude Chambodut (11) , Arnaud C Chulliat (4, 5) , Pierdavide Coïsson (6) , François Civet (1) , Aimin D Du (12) , Alexandre Fournier (6) , Isabelle Fratter (13) , Nicolas Gillet (7) , Brian Hamilton (3) , Mohamed Hamoudi (14, 15) , Gauthier Hulot (6) , Thomas J Jager (8) , Monika Korte (16) , Weijia Kuang (17) , Xavier Lalanne (6) , Benoit Langlais (1) , Jean-Michel J Léger (8) , Vincent Lesur (14) , Frank J Lowes (18) , Susan Macmillan (3) , Mioara Mandea (19) , Chandrasekharan C Manoj , Stefan Maus , Nils Olsen (2) , Valeriy Petrov (9) , Victoria Ridley (3) , Martin Rother (14) , Terence J Sabaka (20) , Diana Saturnino (1) , Reyko Schachtschneider (14) , Olivier Sirol (6) , Andrew Tangborn (21) , Alan Thomson (6) , Lars C Tøffner-Clausen (2) , Pierre Vigneron (6) , Ingo Wardinski (2, 16) , Tatiana Zvereva (9)

1 LPG - Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géodynamique [UMR 6112]
2 DTU Space - National Space Institute [Lyngby]
3 British Geological Survey [Edinburgh]
4 CIRES - Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences
5 NOAA Aeronomy Laboratory
6 IPGP - Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris
7 ISTerre - Institut des Sciences de la Terre
8 CEA-LETI - Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives - Laboratoire d'Electronique et de Technologie de l'Information
9 IZMIRAN - Pushkov Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radio Wave Propagation
10 Earth and Planetary Magnetism Group [Zürich]
11 IPGS - Institut de physique du globe de Strasbourg
12 IGG - Institute of Geology and Geophysics [Beijing]
13 CNES - Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse]
14 GFZ - German Research Centre for Geosciences - Helmholtz-Centre Potsdam
15 Département de Géophysique
16 GFZ - GeoForschungsZentrum - Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam
17 Planetary Geodynamics Laboratory [Greenbelt]
18 School of Chemistry [Newcastle]
19 CNES - Centre National d’Études Spatiales [Paris]
20 GSFC - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
21 JCET - Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology [Baltimore]

The 12th generation of the International Geomagnetic Reference Field (IGRF) was adopted in December 2014 by the Working Group V-MOD appointed by the International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy (IAGA). It updates the previous IGRF generation with a definitive main field model for epoch 2010.0, a main field model for epoch 2015.0, and a linear annual predictive secular variation model for 2015.0-2020.0. Here, we present the equations defining the IGRF model, provide the spherical harmonic coefficients, and provide maps of the magnetic declination, inclination, and total intensity for epoch 2015.0 and their predicted rates of change for 2015.0-2020.0. We also update the magnetic pole positions and discuss briefly the latest changes and possible future trends of the Earth's magnetic field.

Keywords: Geomagnetism; Field modeling; IGRF Correspondence/Findings

Domains: Geophysics [physics.geo-ph]

Erwan Thébault, Christopher C Finlay, Ciarán D Beggan, Patrick Alken, Julien J Aubert, et al.. International Geomagnetic Reference Field: the 12th generation. Earth Planets and Space, 2015, 67, pp.79. ⟨10.1186/s40623-015-0228-9⟩. ⟨insu-01412375⟩