New use for Bartington’s Mag690 three-axis fluxgate magnetometer

The Mag690 has found its way into the USGS Transportable Array, an array of seismometer which is temporarily deployed across the US to accurately map structures under North America. In the Alaskan section of the deployment, the seismic sensor have had to deal with an added layer of noise caused by geomagnetic activities, the most visible expression of which are Aurorae. Instead of shielding the seismometer, the instrumentation team led by USGS have included a three-axis magnetometer alongside the seismometer, and used the magnetic data to clean the seismic data.

This has been very successful, with now over 10 magnetometers deployed. The team has also seen that space weather, and Aurorae particularly can equally be detected by seismometer.

Additional information – Auroras and Earthquakes: Strange Companions

The Mag690 is a low cost, precision three-axis fluxgate sensors which offers noise from 10-20pT.

Adam T. Ringler, Robert E. Anthony, David C. Wilson, Abram C. Claycomb, John Spritzer; Magnetic Field Variations in Alaska: Recording Space Weather Events on Seismic Stations in Alaska. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America
Carl Tape, Adam T. Ringler, Don L. Hampton; Recording the Aurora at Seismometers across Alaska. Seismological Research Letters