Several years of experience with automatic DI-flux systems: theory, validation and results

Abstract. The previous release of our automatic DI-flux instrument, called AutoDIF mk2.2, has now been running continuously since June 2012 in the absolute house of Dourbes magnetic observatory performing measurement every 30 min. A second one has been working in the tunnel of Conrad observatory (Austria) since December 2013. After this proof of concept, we improved the AutoDIF to version mk2.3, which was presented at the 16th IAGA workshop in Hyderabad. As of publication, we have successfully deployed six AutoDIFs in various environments: two in Dourbes (DOU), one in Manhay (MAB), one in Conrad (CON), one in Daejeon (South Korea) and one is used for tests. The latter was installed for 10 months in Chambon-la-Forêt (CLF) and, since 2016, has been in Kakioka (KAK). In this paper, we will compare the automatic to the human-made measurements and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of automatic measurements.