Preface
Akio Yoshida
Director
More than ninety years have passed since the nation's first geomagnetic observations came into service at Kakioka in 1913. The Kakioka Magnetic Observatory has continuously offered high-precision, consistent observational data throughout the decades using its up-to-date observation apparatus and technology, and now ranks among the world's leading observatories. The Japan Meteorological Agency, realizing the value of geomagnetic observations on volcanoes, increasingly utilizes our store of observation and analysis skills built to date, through its monitoring of volcanic activity.
With the advent of the 21st century, public interest in geomagnetic phenomena, from auroras to lightning, continues to soar from the perspective of monitoring the global environment. The Kakioka Magnetic Observatory observes geomagnetic secular variations at four locations across Japan: Kakioka, Memanbetsu, Kanoya and Chichijima in the Bonin Islands. International collaboration is a vital aspect of environmental surveillance on a global scale. We are currently working on preparations for the International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy (IAGA) Workshops on geomagnetic observatory instruments, data acquisition and processing that are to open in Kakioka and Tsukuba - for the first time in Asia - in 2004. The expertise of the Kakioka Magnetic Observatory and the data it produces has been highly evaluated for many years thanks to the efforts of many of our predecessors. We are committed to taking over this legacy and extending it further to make a greater contribution in a variety of geomagnetic studies.
The semiannual Magnetic Observatory Technical Report publicizes the achievements of the technological developments, observations, and researches and studies that have been conducted at the Kakioka Magnetic Observatory to support further growth of the geomagnetic observation projects in and outside Japan.
Nothing would delight me more than to see you, the reader, make extensive use of the presentations in the Technical Report to make for greater productivity in your services, together with the Report of the Kakioka Magnetic Observatory with its coverage of geomagnetic and geoelectric observational data.
March 2003
