Aeromagnetic compensation for UAVs

• Main Authors: Naprstek, T., Lee, M. D.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Geophysical Union 2019
• Subjects: permafrost; cryosphere; magnetic and electrical methods; exploration geophysics; hydrogeophysics; hydrology; volcanic hazards and risks; volcanology
• Online Access: https://nrc-publications.canada.ca/eng/view/object/?id=cbe8efa7-8f1f-43df-b09c-2982476cd712; https://nrc-publications.canada.ca/fra/voir/objet/?id=cbe8efa7-8f1f-43df-b09c-2982476cd712

Aeromagnetic data is one of the most widely collected types of data in exploration geophysics. With the continuing prevalence of unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) in everyday life there is a strong push for aeromagnetic data collection using UAVs. However, apart from the many political and legal barriers to overcome in the development of UAVs as aeromagnetic data collection platforms, there are also significant scientific hurdles, primary of which is magnetic compensation. This is a well-established process in manned aircraft achieved through a combination of platform magnetic de-noising and compensation routines. However, not all of this protocol can be directly applied to UAVs due to fundamental differences in the platforms, most notably the decrease in scale causing magnetometers to be significantly closer to the avionics. As such, the methodology must be suitably adjusted. The National Research Council of Canada has collaborated with Aeromagnetic Solutions Incorporated to develop a standardized approach to de-noising and compensating UAVs, which is accomplished through a series of static and dynamic experiments. On the ground, small static tests are conducted on individual components to determine their magnetization. If they are highly magnetic, they are removed, demagnetized, or characterized such that they can be accounted for in the compensation. Dynamic tests can include measuring specific components as they are powered on and off to assess their potential effect on airborne data. The UAV is then flown, and a modified compensation routine is applied. These modifications include utilizing onboard autopilot current sensors as additional terms in the compensation algorithm. This process has been applied with success to fixed-wing and rotary-wing platforms, with both a standard manned-aircraft magnetometer, as well as a new atomic magnetometer, much smaller in scale. Peer reviewed: No NRC publication: Yes