An experimental aeromagnetic survey using a rubidium vapor magnetometer attached to the rotary-wings unmanned aerial vehicle

Abstract

Abstract An unmanned aircraft system (UAS) for aeromagnetic surveying has been developed on the platform of Geoscan-401 rotary-wings unmanned aerial vehicle. The UAS includes a light rubidium vapor magnetometer (RVM) and an additional differential GPS placed on a loop attached to the copter’s body by 50-meter cable. In operation mode, the aerodynamic design of the loop keeps it in a horizontal position. To define the metrological characteristics of the RVM, a series of tests were conducted using the commercially available magnetometers and a calibration test station. On September 2016, two experimental aeromagnetic surveys with the UAS were conducted over an area of 0.7 sq. km located 30 km northward of Saint Petersburg, Russia. Approximately 32 km of survey lines were flown in two flights of 40 minutes each. During the first flight - Survey 1, the UAS was kept at 30 m above the ground surface (altitude 150–165 m), and second - Survey 2 one went at a constant altitude of 160 m (25–40 m above the surface). The variations from the nominal altitude were approximately ± 2 m. The deviation from the line path reaches 10 m for the flights of southward direction because of southwest wind during the survey.