NON-ORIENTED CESIUM SENSORS FOR AIRBORNE MAGNETOMETRY AND GRADIOMETRY

Recent cesium vapor magnetometers using a split-beam technique have a sufficiently flat error characteristic that they can be flown in a non-oriented or strapdown configuration. This configuration has advantages with respect to conventional methods in terms of reduced size and weight and of greatly reduced cost. This paper describes two fixed orientations for a particular split-beam magnetometer and calculates the allowable maneuver envelope for all dip angles from 0 to 90 degrees. It is shown that the residual orientation errors can best be handled by the conventional type of magnetic interference compensation model that must, in any case, be implemented in digital form for high-sensitivity magnetometry or for any type of gradiometry. Refs.