Magnetic Anomaly Detection
Magnetometers are commonly used to search for submarines.
A submarine is made mainly from ferromagnetic materials, so its presence in the Earth’s magnetic field will distort the field around it.
This is in addition to the submarine’s inherent remanent magnetisation – the magnetisation left behind in ferromagnetic material such as iron after an external magnetic field has been removed.
Magnetic Anomaly Detection (MAD) was developed to detect submarines from an aircraft. It relies on a combination of two magnetometers: - a scalar magnetometer for the measurements
- a precise fluxgate sensor to perform airframe compensation. That is, determine the signature of the aircraft and remove its influence from the scalar magnetometer measurements.
We have a range of sensors, tested to military specification standards for airborne use. Sensors such as the Mag629 are very low-noise, and are specifically designed for MAD. The packaged Mag629 is designed for use on a manned aircraft.
