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Magnetometers for non-space use evolved from the 19th to mid-20th centuries, and were first employed in spaceflight by Sputnik 3 in 1958. A main constraint on magnetometers in space is the availability of power and mass. Magnetometers fall into 3 major categories: the fluxgate type, search coil and the ionized vapor magnetometers.
The fluxgate magnetometer (FGM) is similar to previous instruments flown on spacecraft like the Voyagers, Magsat, Active Magnetospheric Particle Tracer Explorers, Mars Global Surveyor, etc. [10] This style of FGM uses twin wide-range, triaxial flux gate sensors mounted far away from the spacecraft body in which the magnetic flux is periodically switched (hence the ame flux-gate). [10]
The Spacecraft Magnetic Test Facility is located about 2 miles (3.2 km) east of the main campus of the Goddard Space Flight Center, in Building 310-20 on the north side of Good Luck Road. The building is a single-story structure, 60 feet (18 m) square, and is built entirely out of nonmagnetic materials.
These allow the VSM to maximize the induced signal, reduce the noise, give a wide saddle point, minimize the volume in between the sample and electromagnet to achieve a more uniform magnetic field at the sample space. [5] The configuration of the coils can vary depending on the type of material being studied. [5]
Magnetometers may also be classified by their situation or intended use. Stationary magnetometers are installed to a fixed position and measurements are taken while the magnetometer is stationary. [4] Portable or mobile magnetometers are meant to be used while in motion and may be manually carried or transported in a moving vehicle.
The term typically refers to magnetometers used by military forces to detect submarines (a mass of ferromagnetic material creates a detectable disturbance in the magnetic field). Military MAD equipment is a descendant of geomagnetic survey or aeromagnetic survey instruments used to search for minerals by detecting their disturbance of the ...
For comparison, a typical refrigerator magnet produces 0.01 tesla (10 −2 T), and some processes in animals produce very small magnetic fields between 10 −9 T and 10 −6 T. SERF atomic magnetometers, invented in the early 2000s are potentially more sensitive and do not require cryogenic refrigeration but are orders of magnitude larger in ...
The International Real-time Magnetic Observatory Network (INTERMAGNET) is a world-wide consortium of institutes operating ground-based magnetometers recording the absolute level of the Earth's time-varying magnetic field, [2] [3] [4] to an agreed set of standards. INTERMAGNET has its roots in discussions held at the Workshop on Magnetic ...