Carrington Storm Magnetogram Data from Greenwich and Kew, 1859

Digitised magnetic records from the ten-day period from 25th August to 5th September 1859, encompassing the Carrington solar storm. The dataset is based on digital images from the BGS online archive and observatory yearbooks, scaled to SI units with quasi-minute cadence spot values. It was created by the British Geological Survey and includes data in ASCII text files and IAGA-2002 formatted files.

Use Cases

• Analyze the progression of the Carrington storm based on quasi-minute cadence magnetic field measurements.
• Study precursor geomagnetic activity on 28th August 1859 based on the extracted time-series data.
• Validate or calibrate modern space weather models based on historical Horizontal (H), Declination (D), and Vertical (Z) magnetic field components.
• Perform comparative analysis of geomagnetic observations from the two historical observatories, Greenwich (GRW) and Kew (KEW).

Strengths

• Covers the critical ten-day period from 25th August to 5th September 1859, including the major Carrington event.
• Data is scaled to SI units (degrees of angle and nanoTesla), enabling quantitative analysis.
• Includes data from two separate historical observatories, Greenwich and Kew Gardens.
• Provides data in multiple formats, including IAGA-2002 standard files and extracted spot values.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect temporal and instrumental bias inherent to 19th-century measurement techniques.

Provenance

Source

British Geological Survey (BGS)

Collection Method

Digitised from magnetogram images in the BGS online archive and information from observatory yearbooks and scientific papers.

Time Range

25th August to 5th September 1859

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-28 14:05:16.017450; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Observatories at Greenwich (GRW) and Kew Gardens (KEW), United Kingdom.