History of Kakioka Magnetic Observatory

Abstract

Kakioka Magnetic Observatory (KMO) was founded in 1913 by the Central Meteorological Observatory (CMO, later the Japan Meteorological Agency) as a successor to Tokyo Magnetic Observatory. Kakioka was a village 70 km north of Tokyo and was selected to escape from tram noise in Tokyo. At first, it was an unstaffed observatory only for geomagnetic field observation. Then, the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923 changed the fate of KMO because the earthquake severely damaged the CMO in Tokyo, and recording papers of KMO were lost. KMO was staffed in 1924 and was redesigned as an institute for geophysics rather than geomagnetism. KMO operated a variety of observations, such as the atmospheric electric field, the geoelectric field, the seismicity, the air temperature, the wind velocity, the sunspot and solar prominence as well as the geomagnetic field, by the 1940s. In addition, research activity flourished with the leadership of the first director, Shuichi Imamichi. After World War II was over in 1945, KMO formed a network of observatories in Japan by founding several branch observatories originally for geoelectric field observation. Two branch observatories at Memambetsu and Kanoya survived, with geomagnetic field observation added in the International Geophysical Year project (1957–1958). Efforts in development of instruments for geomagnetic absolute measurement and systems of high-sampling recordings in the 1950s to 1970s resulted in the development of the Kakioka Automatic Standard Magnetometer (KASMMER) system in 1972. KASMMER measured the geomagnetic field every 3 s at the highest standard in the world in digital form, giving 1 min digital values of the geomagnetic field available. This system has been updated, and the high-sampling technology was applied to geoelectric field observation and atmospheric electric field observation. Later, adding geomagnetic field observation at Chichijima in 1971, KMO established a unique electric and magnetic observation network at Kakioka, Memambetsu, Kanoya and Chichijima and provided precise and high-speed sampling data (1 min, 1 and 0.1 s values) by 2001. On the other hand, KMO gradually terminated or automated their observations and reduced their staff in the last several decades following the government's reform policy. The two branch observatories at Memambetsu and Kanoya were unstaffed in 2011, and the atmospheric electric field at Memambetsu was terminated at that time. The geoelectric field observations at Kakioka, Memambetsu and Kanoya were terminated in 2021 as well as the atmospheric electric field at Kakioka. KMO focuses on geomagnetic observation for now and puts efforts into total force observation at volcanoes and the digitization of historic analog data.