Patent ID: 7603251
Filing Date: 2009-10-13
Classification: G01R,G01V

Abstract:
1. A magnetic anomaly sensing system, comprising: at least eight triaxial magnetometer (TM) sensors with one of said TM sensors positioned at each vertex of a cubic space, each of said TM sensors having X, Y, Z magnetic sensing axes, said TM sensors positioned such that respective ones of said X, Y, Z magnetic sensing axes are mutually parallel to one another, each of said TM sensors measuring a local magnetic field associated with a target region and generating magnetic field data indicative thereof; processing means coupled to said TM sensors for (a) processing said magnetic field data in accordance with a magnetic scalar triangulation and ranging (STAR) processing scheme to determine a plurality of gradient contractions C (b) determining a directional derivative ∇C (c) calculating a unit vector using said directional derivative ∇C (d) determining a projection distance from each of said measurement points toward the target region wherein each said projection distance is a function of said unit vector and one of said baseline distances ΔS (e) processing each said projection distance in accordance with said STAR processing scheme to determine first values of (i) a position vector from the center of said cubic space to the target region, and (ii) a magnetic moment vector; and output generation means coupled to said processing means for generating at least one of a human-discernable output and a computer-discernable output of said first values.