Geomagnetism's Virtual Instrument Museum
Rubidium Magnetometer
For an enlarged view of the image, click on it.
Background & Usage
This instrument was designed circa 1970 by the National Aeronautics Establishment of the National Research Council. It is the prototype of the ASQ501 MAD detector, a high-sensitivity rubidium magnetometer used by the Canadian military for submarine detection.
The ASQ501 was manufactured by the Montreal firm CEA, but the prototype was acquired by Peter Sawastsky for use by the Geological Survey’s aeromagnetic survey program. It was mounted on a Queenair aircraft in 1971, and was used for several years to conduct high-sensitivity magnetometer surveys at many locations in Canada, including Darnley Bay, the site of a large magnetic anomaly. Eventually, 3 new sensors were built, allowing the Queenair to be fitted with a gradiometer.
Primary navigation (left column)
Geomagnetism
Laboratory
- Geomagnetic laboratory
- Personnel
- Virtual Museum
- Airborne Magnetometer - Phase I
- Airborne Magnetometer - Phase II
- Combined Magnetometer and Dip Circle
- Cooke Magnetometer
- Declination-Inclination Fluxgate Magnetometer
- Dip Circle
- Dover Dip Circle
- Earth Inductor
- Fluxgate Airborne Magnetometer
- Potentiometer
- Quartz Horizontal Magnetometer
- Rubidium Magnetometer
- U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey Magnetometer
- Variometer, La Cour
- Vertical Intensity Magnetometers
- Survey Photographs