Abstract Two geomagnetic main-field models for epochs 1995.0 and 2000.0 were proposed as candidate models for DGRF 1995 and DGRF 2000. A main-field model was derived for epoch 2000.0, using the high-quality data provided by the Ørsted satellite around this epoch. Since no high-quality satellite vector measurements of the magnetic field were acquired between 1980 and 1999, our approach was to extrapolate this 2000.0 accurate model back to 1995. To do this we produced a secular-variation model for the time-span 1995-2000, from ground measurements. The models obtained were incorporated into DGRF 1995 and DGRF 2000 as part of the 9th generation of the IGRF in 2003.