Muhamad Syirojudin, a doctoral student in Geography at the UGM Faculty of Geography, researched ways to improve the use of geostatistical models of regional geomagnetic fields as a reference for the public.
He developed a web-based application, the Earth’s magnetic field calculator. The public still relies on global models, such as the one provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), despite its limitations in accuracy compared to regional models.
Syirojudin’s application is a geomagnetic calculator system capable of calculating and estimating the magnetic field values at specific points and times on Earth’s surface.
The calculator allows users to input the time and coordinate location for calculation, providing accurate magnetic field values at that location.
“The Earth’s magnetic field calculator application was created to facilitate users in obtaining accurate spatial and temporal values of geomagnetic field components. The application calculates values within an epoch period with linearly varying data for a 5-year prediction,” said Syirojudin in his defense on Monday (24/7).
The application uses the PHP platform, MySQL database, and OpenStreetMap as open-source components. Implementing the collocated co-kriging (CC) method as the foundation for the calculator application enhances the accuracy of regional geomagnetic modeling in Indonesia.
“The CC method combines secondary data from the IGRF model as the input for the core magnetic field and repeat station data as the primary data. The application has addressed the data accuracy issue, and its website-based platform enables easy access,” explained Syirojudin, a researcher at the Indonesian Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG).
The collocated co-kriging method is a selected geostatistical method that yields regional geomagnetic modeling with the smallest root mean square (RMSE) value. Syirojudin hopes his research on the Earth’s magnetic field calculator can serve as a national reference for geomagnetic fields.
Author: Gusti Grehenson