Sanctions on magnetic data of the Russian observatories of INTERMAGET network

INTERMAGNET Executive Council and Operations Committee had a meeting at the end of May 2023 in Sopron (Hungary). The public edition of the INTERMAGNET meeting was recently published on the site https://intermagnet.org/meetings/2023May-Sopron/INTERMAGNETMeetingMinutes-SopronMay2023-Public.pdf

In particular, the issue on the status of Russian magnetic observatories, certified as INTERMAGNET members (IMO), was under the discussion. Thee options were suggested.

1) Continue as normal; accept data that is being provided and accept that any definitive data submissions will not be checked.

2) Enforce the INTERMAGNET policy and withdraw IMO status when definitive data have not been accepted after two years, even though the reason of non-acceptance maybe that INTERMAGNET has not checked data. IMOs would need to reapply in the future.

3) Suspend the status of the IMOs, do not publish data on the INTERMAGNET website site, and decide in the future how to proceed. If this option is adopted then the IMO involved must be informed.

The following decision was made: do not change the treatment of Russian observatories. Real-time data can still be accepted. Definitive data can be uploaded but will not be checked. No action will be taken to remove IMO status.

Reference 1: Definitive minute magnetic data are basic for the INTERMAGNET observatories. They are prepared over one-year period by July 1 of the next year. These data are checked by the members of the Data Checking Task Team (https://intermagnet.org/data_checkers.html), and then by the Definitive Data Subcommittee members. If an observatory does not prepare these data or data are not checked within two years, the observatory looses the IMO status.

Reference 2: After February 2022, INTERMAGNET Executive Council sent a text that definitive data of Russian observatories could not be checked due to the position of the checking team members and their institutes. Thus, the data for 2021 and 2022 did not undergo the standard checking procedures and, thus, were not published. There has been no any official information explaining INTERMAGNET position.