This data collection are comprised of magnetic surveys acquired across Australia by Commonwealth, State and Northern Territory governments and the private sector with project management and quality control undertaken by Geoscience Australia. Magnetic surveying is a geophysical method for measuring the intensity (or strength) of the Earth's magnetic field, which includes the fields associated with the Earth's core and the magnetism of rocks in the Earth's crust. Measuring the magnetism of rocks, in particular, provides a means for the direct detection of several different types of mineral deposits and for geological mapping. The magnetism of rocks depends on the volume, orientation and distribution of their constituent magnetic minerals (namely magnetite, monoclinic pyrrhotite, maghaemite and ilmenite). The instrument used in magnetic surveys is a magnetometer, which can measure the intensity of the magnetic field in nanoteslas (nT). Magnetic surveys in this collection have been acquired using aircraft or ship-mounted magnetometers and are a non-invasive method for investigating subsurface geology.

Total magnetic intensity (TMI) data measures variations in the intensity of the Earth magnetic field caused by the contrasting content of rock-forming minerals in the Earth crust. Magnetic anomalies can be either positive (field stronger than normal) or negative (field weaker) depending on the susceptibility of the rock. The 2019 Total magnetic Intensity (TMI) grid of Australia has a grid cell size of ~3 seconds of arc (approximately 80 m). This grid only includes airborne-derived TMI data for onshore and near-offshore continental areas. Since the sixth edition was released in 2015, data from 234 new surveys have been added to the database, acquired mainly by the State and Territory Geological Surveys. The new grid was derived from a re-levelling of the national magnetic grid database. The survey grids were levelled to each other, and to the Australia Wide Airborne Geophysical Survey (AWAGS), which serves as a baseline to constrain long wavelengths in the final grid. It is estimated that 33 500 000 line-kilometres of survey data were acquired to produce the 2019 grid data, about 2 000 000 line-kilometres more than for the previous edition.

Several products were produced from the Total Magnetic Intensity (TMI) Grid of Australia 2019, seventh edition (eCat ID 131505). The grid was found to include 3 extreme, high-amplitude cultural data spikes from current and historical aluminium smelters in Victoria and Tasmania. Also, 3 data spikes of unknown origin were located in the Hunter region of NSW. These 6 data spikes were removed from the gridded data. The following products were produced from the grid with the data spikes removed: 1. Total Magnetic Intensity (TMI) edited grid (.ers) 2. Variable Reduction to Pole (VRTP) grid (.ers) 3. First Vertical Derivative (1VD) grid (.ers) 4. Half Vertical Derivative (05VD) grid (.ers) 5. Pseudo-Gravity (PGrav) grid (.ers) 6. Pseudo-Gravity, Total Horizontal Derivative (THD) grid (.ers) 7. Susceptibility (Sus) grid (.ers) 8. Variable Vertical Gradient (VBzz) grid (.ers) 9. Analytic Signal (AS; Total Gradient) grid (.ers) 10. Tilt Angle (Tilt; Phase Map) grid (.ers) 11. Tilt Angle (Tilt; Phase Map), Total Horizontal Derivative (THD) grid (.ers) 12. Upward Continuation (UC) Residual (Res) Filters (0 to 100 km; 12 grids) 13. Mutliscale Edge Detection Polygons (for each MGA zone; .shp) 14. Analytic Signal Phase Polygons (.shp) 15. GeoTiff Images (of all grids; .tif)

Total magnetic intensity (TMI) data measures variations in the intensity of the Earth magnetic field caused by the contrasting content of rock-forming minerals in the Earth crust. Magnetic anomalies can be either positive (field stronger than normal) or negative (field weaker) depending on the susceptibility of the rock. A variable reduction to Pole is aimed at locating magnetic anomalies exactly above their source bodies and without any distortion. The 2019 Total magnetic Intensity (TMI) grid of Australia with variable reduction to pole (VRTP) has a grid cell size of ~3 seconds of arc (approximately 80 m). This grid only includes airborne-derived TMI data for onshore and near-offshore continental areas. The VRTP processing followed a differential reduction to pole calculation up to 5th order polynomial. Magnetic inclination and declination were derived from the IGRF-11 geomagnetic reference model using a data representative date of January 2005 and elevation 300 m.