Minutes of the Business Meeting of IAGA WG V-OBS
Berlin, Germany, 13 July, 2023
Agenda
1. Welcome and Agenda Approval
2. Report on the XIXth Observatory Workshop held in Tihany and Sopron,
Hungary
3. Information about the XXth Observatory Workshop to be held at theObservatory Vassouras, Brazil, in 2024
4. Proposals for the XXIst Observatory Workshop in 2026
5. News from INTERMAGNET
6. Report from WG Chair & Co-Chair
7. Proposals for resolution
8. Session proposals for the IAGA Assembly 2025 in Lisbon, Portugal
9. Election of WG Chair and Co-Chair
10. AOB

1. Welcome and Agenda Approval
Working Group (WG) Chair Jürgen Matzka and Co-Chair Katia Pinheiro welcomed theparticipants to the business meeting and presented the agenda. The agenda was unanimouslyapproved.
2. Report on the XIXth Observatory Workshop held in Tihany and Sopron, Hungary
Roman Leonhardt gave a report on the recent workshop (22 to 26 May 2023) and theassociated summer school (21 to 23 May 2023). The workshop was attended by 63
participants from 20 countries. Preliminary results of the DI-measurement session werepresented, in which a total of 99 measurements were performed by 29 observers with 31
instruments for three days. A full summary is to be reported later. Special issues will be
published in Copernicus ‘Geoscientific Instrumentation’ and ‘Publications in Geomatics’(geomatika.epss.hu).
3.

Information about the XXth Observatory Workshop to be held at the Observatory
Vassouras, Brazil, in 2024
Katia Penheiro presented progress status of preparation for the next workshop, which
included: Dates and schedule (30 Oct. to 7 Nov. 2024), and access to Vassouras
 Hotel in Vassouras (place for staying, science session and summer school lecture) Observatory facilities for DI-measurements, and LOC members.
4. Proposals for the XXIst Observatory Workshop in 2026
A proposal was put forward by Seiki Asari to host the 2026 workshop at Kakioka, which
included:

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Hosting institution (Japan Meteorological Agency)
Venues (Kakioka observatory and a public hall nearby) and their access
Schedule (5 days in October)
Observatory facilities (4 indoor pillars and 1 outdoor pillar for DI-measurement,
besides 1 indoor pillar for summer school)
The proposal was approved by unanimous vote.
5. News from INTERMAGNET
Jürgen Matzka provided recent news:
 INTERMAGNET had its first annual meeting since Covid in Sopron, Hungary in May2023.
 Some restructuring of the INTERMAGNET organization, including a new class of“General Member” with people nominated by the institutes running IMOs.
 The INTERMAGNET database and web access has moved from Ottawa to Edinburgh,
it has new user-specified download, including HAPI.
 Progress on delivery and checking of definitive 1-second data.
 Two protocols for real time data are investigated for future use: seedlink and MQTT.
 More details in the minutes of the INTERMAGNET meeting, to be published soon.
6. Report from WG Chair & Co-Chair
Update on V-OBS observatory list,
new codes:• GLK (Gyulagarak, Armenia)• FIO (Fihaonana, Madagascar)closed, or degraded:• TAN (Antanarivo, Madagascar, replaced by FIO)
Updates are to be sent to V-OBS Chair.
Follow-up on previous discussion:• Additional online meetings open to all? An online meeting was planned for 2022 but
did not materialize.
• WG mandate for variometer stations? Still to be discussed.
• WG mandate for satellite missions? Yes.
• After discussions internal to WG, Division V could be approached to update mandate
and mission statement.
Points raised by participants:• What is the status of Apia?
• Can the IAGA meeting schedule be changed to allow for a better work/life balance(e.g. including free weekend)
7. Proposals for resolution
There was no resolution proposal to the WG.

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Session proposals for the IAGA Assembly 2025 in Lisbon, Portugal
 Current developments of geomagnetic observatories and advances in higher time
resolution geomagnetic measurements (S. Reay, P. Coïsson, A. Nel) Automated instrumentation and automated data processing, including ML and AI, forgeomagnetic observations (R. Leonhardt, L. Hegymegi, J. Matzka)

9. Election of WG Chair and Co-Chair
Both Chair and Co-Chair were simultaneously appointed because of stepdown of Jürgen
Matzka and Katia Pinheiro. Seiki Asari (Japan Meteorological Agency) was an only
candidate for Chair (until the end of IUGG Incheon, Korea in 2027), and Jürgen Matzka
kindly agreed to serve as Co-Chair for another four years. They were elected unanimously.
10. AOB
The delegates thanked Jürgen Matzka for his service as Chair of the working group, andKatia Pinheiro for her service as Co-Chair. Jürgen Matzka thanked the participants forattending.