Dr. Hans-Joachim Linthe

Dr. Hans-Joachim Linthe has been continuously dedicated to produce highest quality geomagnetic field data at Niemegk and associated observatories. When the Wingst observatory in Germany was threatened by closure around 1999 he successfully transformed it to a mostly automated observatory controlled from Niemegk over the subsequent years, which enabled the continued operation at this traditional and important location. He was always sharing his experience in supporting geomagnetic observatories worldwide, both by informal advices and discussions and in recent years also by formal collaborations. Within these collaborations he was the technical team-leader establishing new geomanetic observatories in Villa Remedios (Bolivia), Keetmanshoop (Namibia), Pantanal (Brazil) and on Lombok Island (Indonesia) with scientific partners from the respective regions. Moreover, he installed two new geomagnetic observatories on St.Helena Island and the Azores in the Atlantic, remotely operated from Niemegk. He provided expertise, technical assistence and training in observation and data processing to upgrade the traditional geomagnetic observatories in Yakutks, Magadan, Paratunka (all Russia), Surlari (Romania), Panayurishte (Bulgaria), Hyderabad and Alibag (India), Odessa (Ukraine) and Vassouras (Brazil) in order to bring them to the INTERMAGNET quality standard or help to maintain the INTERMAGNET status.

Since 1997 Hans-Joachim Linthe has taken over the responsibility for producing the widely used geomagnetic activity index Kp for IAGA. More recently, a near-real time version of this important index was developed by the British Geological Survey, and he also took the task to continuously calculate and provide this new data product via the GFZ web page along with the definitive Kp index.

Hans-Joachim Linthe also promoted high geomagnetic observatory standards, which is demonstrated by publications, which are not recognized formally in the scientific literature, but very relevant to the geomagnetic observatory community, as in particular the Proceedings of the bi-annual IAGA Workshops on Geomagnetic Instruments. He provided service to the community as the chair of IAGA Working Group V-Obs and very active member in INTERMAGNET OPSCOM, was active as member of the scientific committee in IAGA Workshops on Geomagnetic Instruments, Data Acquisition and Processing.