Build a Geomagnetic Observatory ! GELLER Labs "Backyard Science"
Thoughts on a proton precession magnetometer design - a Proton Magnetometer Project. Build an Earth's field magnetometer.
The FDM MAGNETOMETER1 project is a low cost high performance proton magnetometer (a digital magnetometer) kit under development for universities and amateur scientists to be able to accurately measure and monitor changes in the Earth's total magnetic F field and to observe geomagnetic storms. Magnetic storms can cause large excursions in the field and are of concern to interests ranging from electrical power grids, radio communications, and satellite operations, to aurora watchers and amateur radio operators.
1 Filter Diagonalization Method "FDM" (harmonic inversion), see Jan 21 and Jan 23 entries, based on: Vladimir A. Mandelshtam, Howard S. Taylor, Harmonic inversion of time signals and its applications, Journal of Chemical Physics (1997), Volume 107, Issue 17, 1997, Pages 6756-6769
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NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center, Top News of the Day! Space Weather Canada current space weather and regional forcasts.
Project Documentation, Links and References
Journal Notes:
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Overnight: TXT, I reloaded Windows 7 a few days ago and forgot to disable the Auto Restart part of Windows 7 update. So, overnight, following an automatic Windows update, the PC booted and the FDM magnetometer halted. Here is a YouTube clip on how Turn off Auto Restart in Windows 7 Update. Note that you also need to edit the power saver options for the USB port so Win 7 does not stop communicating with the USB 6008 after extended periods of not using the PC.
Evening: The geomagnetic field (total field, "F" scalar) is unsettled this evening PDF. Our local space weather as represented by the total geomagnetic field ("F" scalar) here in upstate, NY, US generally tracks the Natural Resources Canada Ottawa (OTT) station magnetograms (about 200 miles north). The NRCan Current Space Weather page PDF, and the NRCan regional geomagnetic conditions for Eastern North America PDF. Note that some times we do both URLs plus pdfs. The URLs are so readers can link as desired to these pages for future use. The pdfs are date time snap-shots of the pages for our journal entry.
Friday, August 12, 2011
Saturday, August 13, 2011
A new article published today by the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Space Weather section discusses the establishment of a task force to address the affects of geomagnetic disturbances on the power grid: "Addressing Impacts of Geomagnetic Disturbances on the North American Bulk Power System," The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), Rollison, Eric; Moura, John; Lauby, Mark Space Weather, Vol. 9, No. 8, S08006 August 2011 / News. From the article, see also: NERC Geomagnetic Disturbance Task Force (GMDTF) current activities.
The article notes that the present NOAA SWPC Kp scale, which classifies a change in field with time (dB/dt) of 500 nT / minute measured over a three hour time period as Kp 9 (full scale), might be insufficient to warn of a more severe storm, a high impact, low frequency "HILF" event, having a dB/dt potentially as high as 5,000 nT / minute. Also, the Kp index does not provide desired information "indicative of a storm's directional orientation". According to the article warning levels are being improved to give power operators better intensity and orientation warning information.
To be able to observe a HILF event someday, some amateur geomagnetic observatories might want to set up for extended run time periods without mains power. A hefty AC uninterruptible power supply backed up by a generator is one option. Another possibility is to run on a notebook computer with the FDM magnetometer operated on three batteries, two for the +/- rails for the NBLNA module and a +9V to +12V supply for the polarization power source (depends on your cable run and ambient temperature). It might make sense to add a battery operated constant current source at about 1.5 A as the polarization power source.
After the G3 geomagnetic storm last week, we realized that we had been incorrectly looking to the Space Weather Now page, the Wing Kp model, and the Space Weather Alert graphical timeline pages (the A index might give some useful advanced warning) for advanced warning of geomagnetic storms on the order of hours or tens of hours. Although all of those pages are extremely useful once an event has happened, in some cases they appear less useful for early predictions on the order of hours. We have since learned that the NOAA SWPC Bulletin system (which is linked from the SWN page) is far more useful for early notifications of watches and warnings. The NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center, Top News of the Day is also quite helpful.
Sunday, August 14, 2011 K5 - G1 minor magnetic storm
Overnight: PDF, TXT. Evening: The geomagnetic field has been unsettled today, Space Weather Canada PDF, our magnetogram PDF. The rising field to about 2 pm is dominated by our diurnal cycle, however the triangular or slight sine waveforms that follow are typical of unsettled geomagnetic conditions. Late Evening: Conditions have deteriorated to near G1 NRCan is calling for stormy conditions PDF, SWN PDF and the NOAA time line PDF are calling for the possibility of a K5 (G1 minor geomagnetic storm), our magnetogram now shows a fast negative swing in the total field of over 20 nT PDF. Early morning: this event might be winding down now SWN PDF, magnetogram PDF.
Monday, August 15, 2011
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Overnight: PDF, TXT. FDM narrow band spectra PDF, Log spectra PDF (provides a snap-shot record of instrument performance and RFI/EMI conditions).
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Here is a copy of Carl Olsen's FDM Proton magnetometer data (total field "F" scalar) from Colorado Springs, CO covering the NOAA/USGS outage period yesterday TXT, (Subset of the TXT data, the recent 24 hour period included in the TXT file PDF).
Friday, August 19, 2011
Overnight: PDF, TXT. There have been a couple of relatively well defined diurnal cycles of the geomagnetic field over the last couple of days PDF.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Overnight: PDF, TXT. Evening: There was some minor activity around 2200 UTC PDF.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Want to build your own FDM Proton Precession Magnetometer? All parts are in stock now for a small number of kit sales.
Project Documentation, Links and References
NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center, Top News of the Day! Space Weather Canada current space weather and regional forcasts
QUESTIONS/COMMENTS/notice of typos, etc. send email to joegeller @ gellerlabs dot com
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