Upgrade of the Argentine Islands INTERMAGNET observatory at Akademik Vernadsky station, Antarctica

• Published in: Ukrainian Antarctic Journal
• Main Authors: A. Marusenkov, M. Leonov, V. Korepanov, S. Leonov, A. Koloskov, Ye. Nakalov, Yu. Otruba
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; Ukrainian
• Published: State Institution National Antarctic Scientific Center 2019
• Subjects: 1-second intermagnet magnetometer; lemi-025 variometer; the technique of synchronous measurement; lemi-025 variometer noise; Meteorology. Climatology; QC851-999; Geophysics. Cosmic physics; QC801-809; Akademik Vernadsky Station; Antarctic; Argentine; Argentine Islands; Vernadsky Station; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.33275/1727-7485.1(18).2019.135; https://doaj.org/article/efe090aab43d4c618f676217bdda0d2b

The article describes the main features of upgrading the magnetometric complex based on the LEMI-025 variometer in January-April 2019 at the geomagnetic observatory (code AIA) of the Ukrainian Antarctic Akademik Vernadsky station. The observatory’s old magnetometric complex consisted of two LEMI-008 (No. 02 and No. 16) variometers and one POS-1 scalar magnetometer. The measurements of LEMI-008 and POS-1 were not mutually synchronized and this was one of the main problem. Every measuring instrument taken individually as a component of the whole magnetometric complex had good individual properties. However, in general, the complex as an entire system had reduced performance, mainly due to the lack of mutual synchronization of measurements. Some preliminary test results are also presented. Main objective. One of the main task of upgrading the AIA observatory was to install a new variometer that is compatible with the requirements of the 1-second INTERMAGNET data standard. For two decades, old LEMI-008 variometers at Akademik Vernadsky station have shown high baseline stability, which meets INTERMAGNET requirements. Unfortunately, the noise characteristics of old variometers, the accuracy of synchronization with UTC, and the resolution do not longer meet the current INTERMAGNET requirements for devices that produce 1-second data. Measurements of LEMI-008 variometers and POS-1 scalar magnetometer were not mutually synchronized. Due to lack of reliable mutual synchronization, the differences between the field vector modules, calculated indirectly from the variometer measurements and measured directly with the scalar magnetometer, varied and could be unreliable. With strong geomagnetic disturbances, this reduced the overall accuracy of the magnetometric complex as an integral measuring system, although the complex consisted of high-precision instruments. Only one of LEMI-008 variometers was equipped with GPS synchronization. This made data processing difficult. Therefore, one of the crucial upgrading tasks was creation ...