INTERMAGNET has its roots in discussions held at the Workshop on Magnetic Observatory Instruments in Ottawa, Canada, in August 1986 and at the Nordic Comparison Meeting in Chambon La Foret, France, in May 1987.

[5] INTERMAGNET is organised into an Executive Council, formed of representatives of its founding members (NRCan – Canada, IPGP – France, BGS – United Kingdom, USGS – United States of America), and an Operations Committee, formed of members from many institutes concerned with geomagnetism and with operating magnetic observatories.

Definitive data are therefore considered an accurate representation of the vector geomagnetic field and its time dependence at the location of each IMO.

The IMOs must send reported and adjusted data within 72 hours to geomagnetic information nodes (GINs), located in Paris, France; Edinburgh, United Kingdom; Golden, USA; Kyoto, Japan.

Until 2016 IMO data were made available on USB memory stick (additional copies available on application to the INTERMAGNET secretary).

The INTERMAGNET Reference Data Set (IRDS) is a collection of definitive digital values of the Earth's magnetic field at the participating observatories.

Produced soon after acquisition, 98% of the differences between QDD and definitive data (X-north, Y-east, Z-down) monthly mean values should be less than 5nT.

[citation needed] INTERMAGNET data are used for a wide variety of applications, including geomagnetic field mapping, monitoring variable space-weather conditions, directional drilling for oil and gas, aeromagnetic surveying, assessment of geomagnetic hazards (including space weather), and fundamental research on the Earth's interior and surrounding space and atmospheric environments.