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Flux-Gate Magnetometers Design Peculiarities

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Abstract

The most widespread instrument used today for the measurement of quasi-stationary and slowly fluctuating vector magnetic fields is a flux-gate magnetometer (FGM). The most important parameter characterizing the magnetometer quality is its magnetic noise—its threshold sensitivity or its own noise level (NL). Based on the results of experimental research, we may state that the FGM NL mainly depends on the quality of the magnetic material used for FGM sensor core. The “solid liquid” model explaining the nature of magnetic noise is proposed and substantiated. It is demonstrated that special attention has to be paid to the annealing of the core. A new effect—termed gamma-magnetic normalization—is discovered and discussed. It is shown that the magnetometer NL depends not only on the core length and volume but also on the excitation mode of the core. Besides, the ways to improve other factors, such as power consumption and thermal drift which must be taken into account in order to create a FGM with the highest possible performance, are discussed. Some examples are given of the parameters of present advanced FGMs for geophysical uses.

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Acknowledgments

The authors sincerely thank Dr Hakan Svedhem, ESTEC, for assistance in the experimental verification of the gamma-magnetic normalization effect and to the referees and the editor who helped to improve the quality of the paper very much. This work was partially supported by STCU Grant 5567.

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  1. Lviv Centre of Institute for Space Research, 5-A Naukova Str., Lviv, 79060, Ukraine

    Valery Korepanov & Andriy Marusenkov

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  1. Valery Korepanov
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  2. Andriy Marusenkov
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Correspondence to Valery Korepanov.

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Korepanov, V., Marusenkov, A. Flux-Gate Magnetometers Design Peculiarities. Surv Geophys 33, 1059–1079 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10712-012-9197-8

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