Minutes of the Business Meeting of IAGA WG V-OBS
Joint Scientific Assembly IAGA-IASPEI
21-27 August/2021 - Hyderabad/Virtual conference
Agenda
1. Welcome and Agenda Approval
2. Information on the XIXth Observatory Workshop to be held at the Observatory
Kazan, Russia, in 2022
3. Information on the XXth Observatory Workshop to be held at the Observatory
Vassouras, Brazil, in 2024
4. Report from WG Chair & Co-Chair
5. Discussion: Additional online meeting open to all in the near future?
6. Discussion: Keeping track of provisional IAGA codes
7. Resolutions (none proposed)
8. Sessions Proposals for IUGG 2023, Berlin, Germany
9. AOB

1. Welcome and Agenda Approval
Working Group (WG) Chair Juergen Matzka and Co-Chair Katia Pinheiro welcomed theparticipants to the business meeting (BM) and presented the agenda. The agenda wasunanimously approved.
2. Information on the XIXth Observatory Workshop to be held at the Observatory
Kazan, Russia, in 2022
It was informed that the workshop in Kazan, Russia, was postponed in 2020 and 2021 due tothe pandemic. The workshop is planned to be conducted in 2022. The WG thanks the team inKazan for this flexibility and for providing this back-up solution.
3. Information on the XXth Observatory Workshop to be held at the Observatory
Vassouras, Brazil, in 2024
The workshop in Vassouras, Brazil, was postponed from 2022 to 2024. A summer course on
magnetic measurements at the equator is planned to be at Tatuoca (TTB) observatory inconnection with the workshop. The WG thanks the team in Vassouras for this flexibility.
4. Report from WG Chair & Co-Chair
The chair reminded about the mandate (or mission) of the WG V-OBS: Geomagneticobservatories, surveys and analyses: IAGA Working Group V-OBS coordinates all issues
related to the operation of geomagnetic observatories and, in collaboration with V-MOD,
repeat stations around the world.
The mandate (or mission) of the WG was discussed again later in the BM in the context ofmagnetometer stations and geomagnetic satellite missions. IAGA president Mioara Mandea
reminded the participants that the current number of Division V WGs is much smaller than inearlier times and indicated that satellites missions currently would be placed in V-OBS. The
WG V-OBS will discuss internally about including magnetometer stations to its mission
statement and will discuss with V-MOD about the satellite missions. Then, the WG might
approach Division V with the aim of updating its mandate and mission statement.
The observatory workshops are secured until 2024, no need to identify new hosts this year.
Next Chair and Co-Chair election will be 2023 at the IUGG in Berlin.
Concerning the regular update of the V-OBS webpages:
 It is hosted by BGS https://www.bgs.ac.uk/iaga/vobs/home.html
 IAGA V-OBS list of observatories is converted from Google Fusion table (phased outin Dec 2019) to Google Sheet Primary use is for allocating new codes, not a metadata system
 Provisional codes allocated: PIA (Slovenia), STT & FLR (Portugal), SOK (Senegal),
CIP (Argentina)
 Closed, or degraded to variometer or repeat station: MBO (Senegal), AAE (Ethiopia),
NMP (Mozambique), LZH (China)
 It is difficult to get accurate update of global observatory network
The chair asked everybody to send updates on magnetic observatories and stations to VOBS chairs. The working group will send out a reminder email in the near future.
5. Discussion: Additional online meeting open to all in the near future?
The restricted possibilities for travel and the new opportunities for online meetings lead to thequestion of future meetings that allowed all interested members of the community toparticipate online, independently of a registration for the conference. IAGA secretary general
Monika Korte had suggested to WG chairs to hold additional meetings open to all membersof the community.
The chair proposed an additional, more informal online meeting for the WG community inabout one month time after the BM, such that everybody on the WG's emailing list could
join.
The WG concluded, that such a meeting should take place in rather one year time from now
and should be coordianted with INTERMAGNET as well as the observatory workshop inKazan.
6. Discussion: Keeping track of provisional IAGA codes
It was agreed during the meeting discussion that it is currently not necessary to create newrules to revoke provisional, but unused IAGA codes. However, it will be helpful to monitor if
there will be too many codes without use, or if the WG runs out of newly available codes inthe future.
7. Resolutions
No resolution proposal was brought forward to the V-OBS WG.

8. Sessions Proposals for IUGG 2023, Berlin, Germany
Current developments of geomagnetic observatories(ions), instruments andprocessing, and integration of ground and space based data Magnetic observations from space (incl. ionospheric science)
 Geomagnetic observations, products and tools for space science, space weather andspace climate applications
Note: the proposed titles were modified during the Division V business meeting.
9. AOB
The delegates thanked the Chair and Co-chair of the WG. Jürgen Matzka thanked theparticipants for attending.