High-accuracy azimuth measurements: The ENEA solar compass in its instrumental and smart version

• Main Authors: Bollanti, S., Andreoli, F., Cafarella, L., De Meis, D., Di Lazzaro, P.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Società italiana di fisica 2021
• Subjects: 530 Fisica; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://eprints.bice.rm.cnr.it/21331/; http://eprints.bice.rm.cnr.it/21331/1/ncc12265%20%281%29.pdf; https://www.sif.it/riviste/sif/ncc/econtents/2021/044/04-05/article/0

The accurate assessment of the azimuth of a given direction as, e.g., the geographic North, is of utmost importance in many fields. The electronic solar compass patented by ENEA achieves an accuracy of 0.01◦, it is up to 100 times cheaper than instruments having similar accuracy (GPS, gyros, . . . ), and it is also very fast in answering (few seconds). It is based on a simple but effective optical system to capture the Sun direction, and on an analytical algorithm to provide the Sun position. The ENEA solar compass has been tested and used in many circumstances, e.g., for mapping surveys, to align concentrating solar mirrors, and for orientation measurements of structures in archaeological sites. We obtained notable results, together with INGV, in magnetic declination measurements in Antarctica. Finally, we moved the ENEA solar compass algorithm to smartphones, enabling their use as orienteering devices.