Provided by: geographiclib-tools_2.3-1build1_amd64 
NAME
MagneticField -- compute the earth's magnetic field
SYNOPSIS
MagneticField [ -n name ] [ -d dir ] [ -N Nmax ] [ -M Mmax ] [ -t time | -c time lat h ] [ -r ] [ -w ] [
-T tguard ] [ -H hguard ] [ -p prec ] [ -v ] [ --comment-delimiter commentdelim ] [ --version | -h |
--help ] [ --input-file infile | --input-string instring ] [ --line-separator linesep ] [ --output-file
outfile ]
DESCRIPTION
MagneticField reads in times and positions on standard input and prints out the geomagnetic field on
standard output and, optionally, its rate of change.
The input line is of the form time lat lon h. time is a date of the form 2012-11-25 (yyyy-mm-dd or yyyy-
mm), a fractional year such as 2012.9, or the string "now". lat and lon are the latitude and longitude
expressed as decimal degrees or degrees, minutes, and seconds; for details on the allowed formats for
latitude and longitude, see the "GEOGRAPHIC COORDINATES" section of GeoConvert(1). h is the height above
the ellipsoid in meters; this is optional and defaults to zero. Alternatively, time can be given on the
command line as the argument to the -t option, in which case it should not be included on the input
lines. Finally, the magnetic field can be computed at various points on a circle of latitude (constant
time, lat, and h) via the -c option; in this case only the longitude should be given on the input lines.
The output consists of the following 7 items:
the declination (the direction of the horizontal component of
the magnetic field measured clockwise from north) in degrees,
the inclination (the direction of the magnetic field measured
down from the horizontal) in degrees,
the horizontal field in nanotesla (nT),
the north component of the field in nT,
the east component of the field in nT,
the vertical component of the field in nT (down is positive),
the total field in nT.
If the -r option is given, a second line is printed giving the rates of change of these quantities in
degrees/yr and nT/yr.
The WGS84 ellipsoid is used, a = 6378137 m, f = 1/298.257223563.
OPTIONS
-n name
use magnetic field model name instead of the default "wmm2020". See "MODELS".
-d dir
read magnetic models from dir instead of the default. See "MODELS".
-N Nmax
limit the degree of the model to Nmax.
-M Mmax
limit the order of the model to Mmax.
-t time
evaluate the field at time instead of reading the time from the input lines.
-c time lat h
evaluate the field on a circle of latitude given by time, lat, h instead of reading these quantities
from the input lines. In this case, MagneticField can calculate the field considerably more quickly.
-r toggle whether to report the rates of change of the field.
-w toggle the longitude first flag (it starts off); if the flag is on, then on input and output,
longitude precedes latitude (except that, on input, this can be overridden by a hemisphere
designator, N, S, E, W).
-T tguard
signal an error if time lies tguard years (default 50 yr) beyond the range for the model.
-H hguard
signal an error if h lies hguard meters (default 500000 m) beyond the range for the model.
-p prec
set the output precision to prec (default 1). Fields are printed with precision with prec decimal
places; angles use prec + 1 places.
-v print information about the magnetic model on standard error before processing the input.
--comment-delimiter commentdelim
set the comment delimiter to commentdelim (e.g., "#" or "//"). If set, the input lines will be
scanned for this delimiter and, if found, the delimiter and the rest of the line will be removed
prior to processing and subsequently appended to the output line (separated by a space).
--version
print version and exit.
-h print usage, the default magnetic path and name, and exit.
--help
print full documentation and exit.
--input-file infile
read input from the file infile instead of from standard input; a file name of "-" stands for
standard input.
--input-string instring
read input from the string instring instead of from standard input. All occurrences of the line
separator character (default is a semicolon) in instring are converted to newlines before the reading
begins.
--line-separator linesep
set the line separator character to linesep. By default this is a semicolon.
--output-file outfile
write output to the file outfile instead of to standard output; a file name of "-" stands for
standard output.
MODELS
MagneticField computes the geomagnetic field using one of the following models
wmm2010, the World Magnetic Model 2010, which approximates the
main magnetic field for the period 2010-2015. See
https://ngdc.noaa.gov/geomag/WMM/DoDWMM.shtml
wmm2015v2, the World Magnetic Model 2015, which approximates the
main magnetic field for the period 2015-2020. See
https://ngdc.noaa.gov/geomag/WMM/DoDWMM.shtml
wmm2015, a deprecated version of wmm2015v2
wmm2020, the World Magnetic Model 2020, which approximates the
main magnetic field for the period 2020-2025. See
https://ngdc.noaa.gov/geomag/WMM/DoDWMM.shtml
igrf11, the International Geomagnetic Reference Field (11th
generation), which approximates the main magnetic field for
the period 1900-2015. See
https://ngdc.noaa.gov/IAGA/vmod/igrf.html
igrf12, the International Geomagnetic Reference Field (12th
generation), which approximates the main magnetic field for
the period 1900-2020. See
https://ngdc.noaa.gov/IAGA/vmod/igrf.html
igrf13, the International Geomagnetic Reference Field (13th
generation), which approximates the main magnetic field for
the period 1900-2025. See
https://ngdc.noaa.gov/IAGA/vmod/igrf.html
emm2010, the Enhanced Magnetic Model 2010, which approximates
the main and crustal magnetic fields for the period 2010-2015.
See https://ngdc.noaa.gov/geomag/EMM/index.html
emm2015, the Enhanced Magnetic Model 2015, which approximates
the main and crustal magnetic fields for the period 2000-2020.
See https://ngdc.noaa.gov/geomag/EMM/index.html
emm2017, the Enhanced Magnetic Model 2017, which approximates
the main and crustal magnetic fields for the period 2000-2022.
See https://ngdc.noaa.gov/geomag/EMM/index.html
These models approximate the magnetic field due to the earth's core and (in the case of emm20xx) its
crust. They neglect magnetic fields due to the ionosphere, the magnetosphere, nearby magnetized
materials, electrical machinery, etc.
By default, the "wmm2020" magnetic model is used. This may changed by setting the environment variable
"GEOGRAPHICLIB_MAGNETIC_NAME" or with the -n option.
The magnetic models will be loaded from a directory specified at compile time. This may changed by
setting the environment variables "GEOGRAPHICLIB_MAGNETIC_PATH" or "GEOGRAPHICLIB_DATA", or with the -d
option. The -h option prints the default magnetic path and name. Use the -v option to ascertain the
full path name of the data file.
Instructions for downloading and installing magnetic models are available at
<https://geographiclib.sourceforge.io/C++/doc/magnetic.html#magneticinst>.
ENVIRONMENT
GEOGRAPHICLIB_MAGNETIC_NAME
Override the compile-time default magnetic name of "wmm2020". The -h option reports the value of
GEOGRAPHICLIB_MAGNETIC_NAME, if defined, otherwise it reports the compile-time value. If the -n name
option is used, then name takes precedence.
GEOGRAPHICLIB_MAGNETIC_PATH
Override the compile-time default magnetic path. This is typically
"/usr/local/share/GeographicLib/magnetic" on Unix-like systems and
"C:/ProgramData/GeographicLib/magnetic" on Windows systems. The -h option reports the value of
GEOGRAPHICLIB_MAGNETIC_PATH, if defined, otherwise it reports the compile-time value. If the -d dir
option is used, then dir takes precedence.
GEOGRAPHICLIB_DATA
Another way of overriding the compile-time default magnetic path. If it is set (and if
GEOGRAPHICLIB_MAGNETIC_PATH is not set), then $GEOGRAPHICLIB_DATA/magnetic is used.
ERRORS
An illegal line of input will print an error message to standard output beginning with "ERROR:" and
causes MagneticField to return an exit code of 1. However, an error does not cause MagneticField to
terminate; following lines will be converted. If time or h are outside the recommended ranges for the
model (but inside the ranges increase by tguard and hguard), a warning is printed on standard error and
the field (which may be inaccurate) is returned in the normal way.
EXAMPLES
The magnetic field from WMM2020 in Timbuktu on 2020-12-25
echo 2020-12-25 16:46:33N 3:00:34W 300 | MagneticField -r
=> -1.47 11.98 33994.9 33983.7 -871.7 7214.7 34752.1
0.13 -0.02 21.9 23.9 77.9 -8.4 19.7
The first two numbers returned are the declination and inclination of the field. The second line gives
the annual change.
SEE ALSO
GeoConvert(1), geographiclib-get-magnetic(8).
AUTHOR
MagneticField was written by Charles Karney.
HISTORY
MagneticField was added to GeographicLib, <https://geographiclib.sourceforge.io>, in version 1.15.
GeographicLib 2.3 2023-07-25 MAGNETICFIELD(1)