In house development of a scalar magnetometer

Authors

Prasanna Mahavarkar, Indian Institute of Geomagnetism, Navi Mumbai, IndiaFollow

Abstract

Scalar magnetometers namely the proton precession magnetometers (PPM) are popular in various ground surveys and observatories. With this primary purpose of generating the ground based magnetic data, the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism (IIG) for the last three decades have been developing low cost PPM. Beginning with the 1 nT PPM, which has undergone several changes in design, the successor 0.1 nT PPM – the advanced version has been successfully developed and is installed at various observatories of the institute. The 1 nT version is a manual operated PPM commissioned in the institute observatories to record the absolute geomagnetic field and with its inherent discrete component design has a lower sampling rate. On the other hand, 0.1 nT PPM is a microcontroller based console, which ensures higher sampling rate resulting in better accuracy. In addition, 0.1 nT PPM is equipped with additional features viz. Global Positioning System (GPS), Personal Computer (PC) interfacing, and data storage capabilities. We report here the design aspects of both these versions and the quality of data generated by this instrument in the field.

Recommended Citation

Mahavarkar, Prasanna (2017) "In house development of a scalar magnetometer," Manipal Journal of Science and Technology: Vol. 2: Iss. 2, Article 4.
Available at: https://impressions.manipal.edu/mjst/vol2/iss2/4