I have become interested in Space Weather. In particular the effect that Electromagnetic Radiation from the Sun has on the Earth's Magnetic Field. I have started monitoring the Earth's Magnetic Field using a Fluxgate Magnetometer (FGM-3h) I obtained from Speake & Co, Llanfapley.
My original plan was to build a Proton Precession Magnetometer as detailed in the book "Signals from the Subatomic World: How to Build a Proton Precession Magnetometer" but it is impossible to get the PCI card for the computer control, and things have moved on somewhat in electronics since the book was written. I still plan to do this project.
My FGM-3h is buried about 1 metre below ground to stabalise the temperature somewhat, the pulse output is inversely proportional to the strength of the Earth's Magnetic Field. I have a stable 5v supply to the FGM-3h and the pulse is fed to a Raspberry Pi, and the output is then logged to disc for graphing using a program I have written in C.
To create the Kp value every 3 hours, the Field Strength is normalised first, then the value displayed. I have also displayed the time of High Water, because I think the fluctuation in the field strength may be related to this.
