Hel EN

The observatory is located within the Seaside Landscape Park. The area, surrounded on three sides by the waters of the Gulf of Gdańsk, is sparsely urbanised. The absence of major artificial disturbances makes this place ideal for continuous and precise geomagnetic observations. The area of approximately 4.5 hectares is covered with mixed forest, mainly pine and birch. Small clearings are dotted with pavilions containing measuring and recording equipment.

HISTORY

The observatory began operating in 1954 and is a field unit of the Institute of Geophysics of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Due to the need to minimise electromagnetic disturbances, its location was chosen away from human settlements, industry and technical infrastructure. In the first decades of its operation, the focus was on manual measurements of magnetic field components. Over time, the equipment was modernised and the scope of research was expanded to include automatic data recording and long-term analysis.

Since 1998, the observatory in Hel has been part of the international INTERMAGNET network, a prestigious global research infrastructure monitoring changes in the geomagnetic field. The minute values of the field components X, Y, Z and the total vector F are recorded. The data is sent daily to information collection centres in Edinburgh and Paris. The changes recorded by the observatory’s instruments reflect the impact of phenomena such as solar wind on the Earth’s magnetic field.

In recent years, the observatory’s activities have been expanded to include atmospheric research. Among other things, the optical properties of aerosols are monitored using a CIMEL solar photometer as part of the global AERONET network.

WHAT WE DO?

• We monitor the Earth’s magnetic field 24 hours a day
• We perform absolute geomagnetic measurements
• We belong to the international INTERMAGNET network
• We record the optical properties of atmospheric aerosols using a CIMEL solar photometer as part of the global AERONET network
• We provide data for the analysis of geomagnetic and climatic changes