The MANA network has been set up as part of Work Package 3 of the University of Otago’s Solar Tsunamis project. The overarching goal of the Solar Tsunamis project is to prepare the critical energy infrastructure of Aotearoa New Zealand for future extreme space weather events. This is a multi-faceted project with collaboration from both international and national research and industry partners. The ultimate goal is to give Aotearoa New Zealand’s energy providers the information necessary to predict the occurrence of extreme space weather events, and the mitigation techniques necessary to prevent catastrophic damage to our energy infrastructure.

The part that WP3 has to play in this project is to better understand, and ultimately predict, the morphology of storm-time geomagnetic fields across Aotearoa New Zealand. The MANA network will provide the real-world data backbone that will inform the modelling efforts necessary to obtain accurate predictions of storm-time magnetic field fluctuations.

Goals and Progress

Our intention for the MANA network is to have a total of five variometers installed across the country. The measurements from these magnetometers, along with from some non-MANA magnetometers, will allow us to investigate the temporal and spatial variation of the magnetic field across the country. As of March 2023, all of the planned magnetometers have been installed. For more information on these sites, see the Site Information page.