Center for Space Science and Engineering Research

Antarctic Low-Powered Magnetometers

NEW: Searchcoil spectrogram plots are now available.

Recent Data Plots


System 2 data

PG0 Magnetometer Data, lat= -83.670 lon=88.681


PG1 data

PG1 Magnetometer Data, lat=-84.501 lon=77.198


PG2 data

PG2 Magnetometer Data, lat= -84.42 lon= 57.96


PG3 data

PG3 Magnetometer Data, lat= -84.81 lon= 37.63


PG4 data

PG4 Magnetometer Data, lat= -83.34 lon= 12.25


PG5 data

PG5 Magnetometer Data, lat= -81.96 lon= 5.71


PG2 searchcoil plot

PG2 Searchcoil Magnetometer Spectrogram, lat= -84.42 lon= 57.96


PG3 searchcoil plot

PG3 Searchcoil Magnetometer Spectrogram, lat= -84.81 lon= 37.63


PG4 searchcoil plot

PG4 Searchcoil Magnetometer Spectrogram, lat= -83.34 lon= 12.25


PG5 searchcoil plot

PG5 Searchcoil Magnetometer Spectrogram, lat= -81.96 lon= 5.71


chain map

Antarctic 40 Degree Magnetic Meridian Chain

Virginia Tech sites are shown in red.

Magnetic conjugate locations in Greenland are marked in green.

Other magnetometer stations are marked in black.



About These Magnetometer Instruments


A digital, low-powered magnetometer system was tested at South Pole in 2006-2007 and moved onto the Antarctic Plateau in January 2008 to location 'PG1', at lat=-85.50 lon=77.20. Another magnetometer was placed at 'PG2', lat= -84.42 lon= 57.96, in January 2009 and removed in December 2010 for repairs. Magnetometers having more advanced designs, including the addition of search coils, were installed at South Pole Station (lat =-89.98) in December, 2010 and 2011 for testing until final placement. 'System 3' was moved to location PG2 in January 2012, and replaced with 'System 4' in December 2012. 'System 5' was set up at location PG3 in January 2013. Three other magnetometers were moved to the Antarctic Plateau in 2014 to January 2016, at locations PG0, PG4, and PG5. These magnetometers complete the PENGUIn (Polar Experimental Network for Geospace Upper atmosphere Investigations) 40 degree magnetic meridian chain, conjugate to a chain on the western Greenland coast.
The systems are designed for 5-year operation, unattended. 1-second vector geomagnetic variations are transmitted from the station via Iridium satellite communications links. To save power during the dark winter, the vector magnetic data are stored and only station housekeeping data are transmitted. The stored winter data are retrieved during the summer when power is available from the solar panels. The graphs above show the most recent data that have been obtained.
A chart showing the operational timeline of each site is in this PDF document.
Details about system locations and status are in these PDF documents:
PENGUIn_SiteLocations_2016
AALPIP_SYS_Tracking 2010-2016
More details about this project and these instruments are in this PDF document.
Please refer to our data policy and disclaimer document regarding use of these data in scientific publications.

The digital, low-powered magnetometers in Antarctica are operated by a collaboration between Space @ Virginia Tech , the Space Physics Research Laboratory  at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and the National Institute of Aerospace in Hampton, VA. Professor C. Robert Clauer is the PI at Virginia Tech.

This effort is supported by the National Science Foundation through the following awards: ANT0839858, ATM922979, PLR-1543364, PLR-1243398, (Virginia Tech), and ANT0838861 (University of Michigan).

 Warning: The plots displayed on this page are provided only for non-commercial monitoring purposes.