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The recent satellite magnetic missions, combined with high quality ground observatory measurements, have provided excellent data for main field modelling. Four different groups submitted seven main-field and eight secular-variation candidate models for IGRF-10. These candidate models were evaluated using several different strategies. Comparing models with independent data was found to be difficult. Valuable information was gained by mapping model differences, computing root mean square differences between all pairs of models and between models and the common mean, and by studying power spectra and azimuthal distributions of coefficient power. The resulting adopted IGRF main-field model for 2005.0, an average of three selected candidate models, is estimated to have a formal root mean square error over the Earth's surface of only 5 nT, though it is likely that the actual error is somewhat larger than this. Due to the inherent uncertainty in secular variation forecasts, the corresponding error of the adopted secular-variation model for 2005.0-2010.0, an average of four selected candidate models, is estimated at 20 nT/a.

The coefficients for the new 9th Generation International Geomagnetic Reference Field (IGRF) were finalized at the XXIII General Assembly of the International Union of Geophysics and Geodesy (IUGG), held in Sapporo, Japan, in July 2003. The IGRF is widely used as a mathematical representation for the Earth's magnetic field in studies of the Earth's deep interior, crust, and ionosphere and magnetosphere. It is the product of a collaborative effort between magnetic field modelers and the institutes involved in collecting and disseminating magnetic field data from observatories and surveys around the world and from satellites.

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On this occasion the selection of the IGRF for 2000 was left to a small Task Force. Before it was accepted by the Task Force as IGRF 2000, the final candidate model (a truncated version of Ørsted(10c/99)) was compared with a comprehensive set of independent surface and satellite data. The method, data selection, and results of this comparison are described.