Abstract
Abstract. Absolute geomagnetic measurement is very important at geomagnetic observatories. It plays a decisive role in data quality control and instrument calibration. As absolute geomagnetic measurements from modern fluxgate theodolite instruments have high precision, usually within 1 arcsec, the measurement results are susceptible to external factors. The operator difference is one of these factors and has become an important consideration that can not be ignored with respect to measurement results. Therefore, an experiment was designed in order to estimate the operator difference. Six fluxgate theodolites were used and six observers who were proficient in absolute measurements were invited to participate. The observers took turns making absolute geomagnetic measurements, and the operator difference between the observers for each instrument was computed by comparing baseline values using statistical methods.
Highlights
The geomagnetic field is an intrinsic characteristic of the Earth, and it is a vector which has a direction as well as size
The variometer can record the continuous variations of the geomagnetic field components; as the variometer usually works as a near-zero sensor, the recording is not an absolute value but a relative value, and its measurement range is usually within ±3000 nT, it may be as great as ±4000 nT at high latitudes (Jankowski et al, 1996)
As we only focus on the magnitude of the operator difference rather than the sign, we take the absolute values of the operator differences
Summary
The geomagnetic field is an intrinsic characteristic of the Earth, and it is a vector which has a direction as well as size. A set of at least three major instruments is used to measure the geomagnetic field at most observatories: a variometer, an absolute scalar magnetometer and a fluxgate theodolite (Gonsette et al, 2017a). The unique absolute vector geomagnetic field can be determined using F, D and I, and the baselines of each of the components of the variometer can be calculated. As the declination and inclination are measured manually, some artificial observation errors are unavoidable during the measurement process which will affect the final results. There is more than one observer working in an observatory, and the observers take turns making absolute geomagnetic measurements In these cases, there would be more artificial observation errors involved, and the influence on the final results may become stronger. Only the artificial observation errors in the absolute geomagnetic measurements are analyzed here
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