Correlation between fluxgate and SQUID magnetometer data sets for geomagnetic storms

¹ SANSA Space Science, Hospital Street, Hermanus, 7200 Western Cape, South Africa
² Dept. E&E Engineering, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch 7600, South Africa

^a e-mail: tkmatladi@gmail.com
^b e-mail: esaunderson@sansa.org.za

Abstract

There has always been a need to monitor the near Earth's magnetic field, as this monitoring provides understanding and possible predictions of Space Weather events such as geomagnetic storms. Conventional magnetometers such as fluxgates have been used for decades for Space Weather research. The use of highly sensitive magnetometers such as Superconducting QUantum Interference Devices (SQUIDs), promise to give more insight into Space Weather. SQUIDs are relatively recent types of magnetometers that exploit the superconductive effects of flux quantization and Josephson tunneling to measure magnetic flux. SQUIDs have a very broad bandwidth compared to most conventional magnetometers and can measure magnetic flux as low as a few femtotesla. Since SQUIDs have never been used in Space Weather research, unshielded, it is necessary to investigate if they can be reliable Space Weather instruments. The validation is performed by comparing the frequency content of the SQUID and fluxgate magnetometers, as reported by Phiri.