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Download definitive indices, last month

Definitive Kp Index and derived indices since 1932

As a member of the International Service of Geomagnetic Indices, the GFZ, Adolf-Schmidt-Observatory Niemegk, supplies historical and current Kp and derived indices per anonymous FTP:

   ftp://ftp.gfz-potsdam.de/pub/home/obs/kp-ap/

Note: FTP site may refuse connections due to excessive traffic.

The kp-ap/ directory contains:

  • readme.txt: ASCII text file, a plain text copy of the Geomagnetic Indices.
  • music.exe: binary executable for Windows PC. music.exe reads Kp/ap values in WDC format and produces a PostScript file with Bartels Kp music diagram. Download music.exe using binary mode! The data file ssc.dat is also required to run music.exe.
  • ssc.dat: ASCII data file. List of (storm) sudden commencements (ssc), partly preliminary.
  • tab/: Subdirectory. Contains the monthly Kp/ap tables in a simple text format readable for both humans and computers (*.tab). The file tab_fmt.txt provides a format description. The tables distributed by regular mail (PostScript format) are also provided in this directory.
  • wdc/: Subdirectory. Contains the monthly (respectively yearly) Kp/ap tables and much more information in condensed tables (ASCII format). The format is nearly identical to the format of Kp/ap tables distributed by the World Data Center A for Solar-Terrestrial Physics. The file wdc_fmt.txt provides a format description. This format does not contain any information on the quiet and most disturbed days as the tables in the tab directory do.
  • music/: Subdirectory. Contains the Kp values in the Bartels musical diagram (Postscript format), which is very helpful in visualizing the indices.
  • quietdst/: Subdirectory. Contains tables of the quietest and most disturbed days for all months since Jan 1932. (Values since 1900 also supplied, use with caution.)
  • kp-freq/: Subdirectory. Contains tables of frequencies of Kp indices.
  • ap_monyr.ave: ASCII test file. A table with monthly and yearly averages of Ap.

Download Q, D days

Access via FTP server:

ftp://ftp.gfz-potsdam.de/pub/home/obs/kp-ap/quietdst/

The quiet (Q) and disturbed (D) days:

Download real-time indices (since April 2007)

Access via FTP server:

ftp://ftp.gfz-potsdam.de/pub/home/obs/kp-nowcast-archive

In some file formats, information about the number of observatories included in the calculation is obtained.

dat: Subdirectory, contains annual files of the Kp index. If all 13 observatories did not contribute to the real-time index, then there is also the number of observatories included in the calculation.

music: Subdirectory, containing annual Kp-Index diagrams in Postscript and GIF format that graphically show the Kp index.

tab: Subdirectory containing monthly Kp / Ap / Cp tables in ASCII text format. The file tab_fmt.txt contains the format description, however no real-time indices are specified for Q or D days.

wdc: Subdirectory containing monthly, Kp / ap / Ap / Cp / C9 tables and other information in condensed WDC format. The file wdc_fmt.txt contains a format description.