Compact Quantum Magnetometer System on an Agile Underwater Glider.

This paper presents results from the integration of a compact quantum magnetometer system and an agile underwater glider for magnetic survey. A highly maneuverable underwater glider, ROUGHIE, was customized to carry an increased payload and reduce the vehicle's magnetic signature. A sensor suite composed of a vector and scalar magnetometer was mounted in an external boom at the rear of the vehicle. The combined system was deployed in a constrained pool environment to detect seeded magnetic targets and create a magnetic map of the test area. Presented is a systematic magnetic disturbance reduction process, test procedure for anomaly mapping, and results from constrained operation featuring underwater motion capture system for ground truth localization. Validation in the noisy and constrained pool environment creates a trajectory towards affordable littoral magnetic anomaly mapping infrastructure. Such a marine sensor technology will be capable of extended operation in challenging areas while providing high-resolution, timely magnetic data to operators for automated detection and classification of marine objects.

Interleaved NQR detection using atomic magnetometers.

Interleaved Nuclear Quadrupole Resonance (NQR) detection was conducted on ammonium nitrate and potassium chlorate using two 87Rb magnetometers, where potassium chlorate is measured during the T1 limited recovery time of ammonium nitrate. The multi-pass magnetometers are rapidly matched to the NQR frequencies, 531 kHz and 423 kHz, with the use of a single tuning field. For ease of implementation, a double resonant tank circuit was used for excitation, but could be replaced by a broad-band transmitter. All work was done in an unshielded environment and compared to conventional coil detection. The two magnetometers were sensitive, base noise as low as 2 fT/Hz, and were shown to reduce ambient noise through signal subtraction. When an excitation pulse was introduced, however, residual ringing increased the noise floor; mitigation techniques are discussed. The two detection techniques resulted in comparable Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR). Interleaved detection using the atomic magnetometers took half the time of conventional detection and provided localization of the explosives.