Abstract
IN France terrestrial magnetism is included in meteorology, and the actual survey upon which the present work is largely dependent was made by M. Moureaux, director of Pare St. Maur Observatory, then the central magnetic station for France. Prof. Angot, who is director of the French meteorological service, was responsible for the last magnetic charts relating to the epoch January 1, 1901. Whether fresh charts will continue to be published every ten years appears as yet to be undecided. Two methods were considered of obtaining the secular change data, necessary to derive results for January 1, 1911, from those for 1901. The first consisted in taking fresh field observations in a sufficient number of places, and some observations having this end in view were taken by M. Eblé in 1912 and 1913. These have served to some extent as a control, but the second method was that actually depended on. It consists in utilising the secular change data published by observatories in France and adjacent countries, including Potsdam, De Bilt, Valencia, Greenwich, Kew, Falmouth, Vaj Joyeux, Munich, Pola, Naples, Coimbra, and San Fernando. The ten-year secular changes at these ostations were plotted in a map, and curves of equal secular change drawn, from which were deduced the secular changes appropriate to each station. The method is obviously more suitable for France than for the British Isles. But even in the case of France, in the absence of positive knowledge that secular change is unaffected by local disturbance, it is doubtful whether it will be universally admitted that the method is altogether satisfactory for the deduction of charts showing rthe local anomalies. It is obviously simpler, however, than the carrying out of observations at a large number of repeat stations.
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CHREE, C. New French Magnetic Charts. Nature 100, 334 (1917). https://doi.org/10.1038/100334a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/100334a0