6533b852fe1ef96bd12aa418

RESEARCH PRODUCT

A network of magnetometers for multi-scale urban science and informatics

T. A. BowenT. A. BowenE. ZhivunE. ZhivunA. WickenbrockV. DumontS. D. BaleS. D. BaleC. PankowG. DoblerG. DoblerG. DoblerG. DoblerJ. S. WurteleD. BudkerD. BudkerD. BudkerD. Budker

subject

Atmospheric Science010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciencesComputer sciencebusiness.industryMagnetometerlcsh:QC801-809GeologyOceanography01 natural sciencesSignalFluxgate compasslaw.inventionlcsh:Geophysics. Cosmic physicsSoftwareWaveletlaw0103 physical sciencesRange (statistics)Global Positioning System010306 general physicsScale (map)business0105 earth and related environmental sciencesRemote sensing

description

The magnetic signature of an urban environment is investigated using a geographically distributed network of fluxgate magnetometers deployed in and around Berkeley, California. The system hardware and software are described and initial operations of the network are reported. The sensors measure vector magnetic fields at a 3960 Hz sample rate and are sensitive to 0.1 nT/Hz. Data from individual stations are synchronized to ±120 µs using global positioning system (GPS) and computer system clocks and automatically uploaded to a central server. We present the initial observations of the network and preliminary efforts to correlate sensors. A wavelet analysis is used to study observations of the urban magnetic field over a wide range of temporal scales. The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is identified as the dominant signal in our observations, exhibiting aspects of both broadband noise and coherent periodic features. Significant differences are observed in both day–night and weekend–weekday signatures. A superposed epoch analysis is used to study and extract the BART signal.

10.5194/gi-8-129-2019https://www.geosci-instrum-method-data-syst.net/8/129/2019/gi-8-129-2019.pdf