Tristan : Magnetometer Station on Tristan da Cunha in Operation
Submitted by Tristan Times (Sarah Glass) 26.11.2009 (Article Archived on 10.12.2009)

During the 2009 visit of the SA Agulhas, Jürgen Matzka from Denmark, Alan Berarducci from the US and Bjorn Ove Husoy from Norway visited Tristan to finalize the magnetometer station on Tristan da Cunha.

Magnetometer Station on Tristan da Cunha in Operation

By Sarah Glass (Tristan Times)

 Jürgen Matzka in his office on site

During the 2009 visit of the SA Agulhas, Jürgen Matzka from Denmark, Alan Berarducci from the US and Bjorn Ove Husoy from Norway visited Tristan to finalize the magnetometer station on Tristan da Cunha.

The station was started in 2008 by Leo Gening from Enviroconsult and now, in its final setup, measures the magnetic field of the Earth every second. To deliver data according to the highest standards, Robin Repetto (who is also station manager) and Jason Green were trained to perform weekly calibration measurements with a theodolite. The other two instruments of the station are a Danish FGE magnetometer, located in a pyramide shaped shelter and sending online data to the oiutside world, as well as a Candian GSM magnetometer that measures the magnetic field strength. The project is a cooperation of several institutes and mainly funded by the Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation.

In the South Atlanic, the magnetic field is too steep and too much easterly directed, too weak and still decreasing, says Jürgen Matzka. We want to learn more about the processes in the core of the Earth that are responsible for the weakening magnetic field, but also study the consequences this has for the interaction between planet Earth and space. Similar stations are on Ascension, St. Helena, the Falklands, Hernamus and Sao Paulo. In 2011, three satellites will be sent into space in ESA’s Swarm mission to measure the magnetic field, and the magnetometer station on Tristan da Cunha will be one of the ground stations for this.

We would like to say thank you to all of you for helping making the Magnetometer Station work successfully. Thanks to the Tristan da Cunha administration, Island Council and the whole community for their permission and support. Thanks to our station manager Robin and operator Jason and all people involved offloading and building the station. Thanks for electrical support, carpentry, internet and bringing the stones away from the field around the station and all the other things. Very imprtantly, thanks for all the advice we got on how to proceed with the station to make it fit into the Tristan community. And finally thanks to James and Felicity, for their great hospitality throughout our stay.