Geomagnetic Observatories at Australian Antarctic and subantarctic stations

The geomagnetic elements X, Y and Z are the components of the vector field in the Geographic North, Geographic East and Vertical directions. They are in a cartesian coordinate system.

The magnetic field is completely defined by three independent components such as X,Y and Z. It can also be expressed in polar coordinates as D,F,I where D is the declination, I is the inclination and F is the magnitude of the vector field. There is one other component used: H. This is the horizontal component. H,D and Z or D,H and F are also commonly used to define the magnetic field.