Magnetometer measures abnormal high value of local magnetic field  during simultaneous observation of an unidentified flying object xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

            In 2008  the 9^th of October, around 22h00 local time , a registration took place of an  

            extreme high value of the local geomagnetic field

            The Bx component was measured by means of a ringcore fluxgate magnetometer in

            our local, private observation station in Sint xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Katelijne Waver , Belgium

            The total duration of the magnetic anomaly was 7 minutes.

            After the event, recalibration of the magnetometer by means of a Helmholz coil

            system took place confirming the correct measurement value .

            Raising the magnetic field to a total value of 60 microTesla , 40 microTesla above

            the normal value of the Bx component was real.

            Comparing the registration of Dourbes indicates clearly that the anomaly was very

            local. In Dourbes ,on a distance of more than 100Km ,there was no effect .

            On the right moment of the event ,there was no explanation for it at all.

             A week later there was an e-mail from Caelestia , Antwerp questioning

            if  it was possible for looking at some possible disturbance in the magnetic

            field without saying anything more.  Indeed it was!

            A lady and her daughter had reported a visual observation of an unidentified

            flying object to the “ melding point “ of there organization.

            The visual observation took place at approximately 1Km away from our

            magnetic station.

            Big surprise was that the time window for the visual observation was exactly the

            same as for the magnetic anomaly.

            Interrogation of the witnesses resulted in the explicitly denying that it was a

            classic airplane, no wings, no tail , no pulsating navigation lights at all.

            She described it as an oval object with quite a lot of bright lights on its

            perimeter and  making no noise .  It was so strange  that she and also her 

           daughter  became very frightened .

            This is the story that gave start to the following investigation report.

            Initially it was the purpose of proving it was possible to an amateur to build a

magnetometer instrument with limited means and with a  minimal knowledge

            of the necessary physics of electronics and magnetism.

            After some time of fighting instability problems it became possible making

            registrations with the same accuracy as those of our official station in Dourbes.

            In 2004 , November 9^th  came the confirmation during the magnetic storm due to

            a sun-eruption a few day’s before.

            Comparing point by point it showed the same picture between our registration and

            that of Dourbes: thereby proving the possibility of  building an accurate home made

            instrument.

            After November 9^th  the equipment stayed in service with reduced sensitivity

            Registrations were made each day until in 2008 on October 9^th a very big anomaly

            took place. It happened after approximately 10 year of operation .

           Report of a geomagnetic anomaly 

                                 Place : Sint Katelijne Waver    --   Belgium

                                 Time:  October  9^th   2008

                                             21h50  Local Time

                                  Measurements:  executed with ringcore –fluxgate

                                                              magnetometer

                                  Calibration : with Helmholz  coil configuration

                               Registration of Bx component of geomagnetic field

                               Coordinates:  51 degrees 4 minutes  7 seconds   North

                                                       4 degrees 31 minutes   East

                                                                                    2010  October 23th

                                                                                         J. De Ceuster

                                                                       BUFON Workgroup Metrology

                                BUFON  Workgroup Metrology   :  Magnetic Events    

1.     Introduction: magnetometry  : measuring discipline for studying physico-magnetic

                                                       events.

                            geomagnetism:  study of earth-magnetic field behaviour

                             magnetometer : measuring equipment for determination and

                                                      quantization of magnetic events.

2.     Magnetometer

Among different kinds of magnetic measurement devices , those of the type

“fluxgate ‘is chosen in our research .

3.     Earth magnetic field:

The earth magnetic field is a quasi stationary vector field during low sun

activity periods.  The slow varying flux results in practical no induced voltage

in a simple coil detector . So a special solution has to be used, namely a flux-

gate magnetometer .

4.     Ringcore- fluxgate magnetometer:

This type is usable for the job

The sensor is made of a set of 2 windings over a fully closed magnetic core:

one winding for excitation purpose and the second one as detection coil.

The excitation winding is supplied with a symmetrical rectangular waveform

driving the core alternatively in saturation for both polarities of the voltage.

Returning out of the saturation pulses are produced in the detection winding

equally in amplitude with no external magnetic flux present

Any external field e.g. a magnetic field component Bx (= 20microTesla) ,will influence the produced pulses in a way that for one polarity there is an adding effect and for the other one a diminishing  effect .This asymmetry in the detection winding, due to the external field ,will create a net value proportional to the external field component. Integration and amplification act give an exact image of this external field , in our case the Bx component of the geomagnetic field .Digitizing and amplifying by a 10bit AD converter and Compaq Laptop results in a final print out

5.     Detection station at Sint Katelijne Waver

A visit to the Geophysical Station of the KMI  ( Royal Institute of Meteology) in Dourbes  represents the beginning idea of  building a home-made station

It was clear that is should be possible to build one if the minimum knowledge of

magnetism and electronics is present.

The choice of a location in Sint Katelijne Waver was not an obstacle due to the rural character of the region . There is no heavy industry and other disturbing activity is not present at the moment. In the beginning results were compared with those of Dourbes on a daily base as well with other amateur stations from the SAM group in the Netherlands and Germany .

In 2004 there was a serious magnetic storm on November the 9^th. This was THE opportunity to compare in detail our own registrations point by point  with those of Dourbes .The result of this analysis affirmed correctness of our measurements and affirms the possibility of running a home-made station with good result.

6.     Technical evaluation

The frequency of the pulses injected in the excitation coil is 1200c/s

The Nyquist criterion indicates then that de usable bandwidth for analog content in the signal is 600c/s. After this first sampling follows an integration of the pulses to determine the slowly varying component in the signal.

Very fast sampling with an AD converter is executed on this slowly varying signal and the mean values between two successive minutes stored over a period of 24 hours. The print-out shows the slowly varying component plotted each minute.

Our installation possesses only 1 measurement channel that means that there are only data for 1 component of the field namely the Bx component  (20microTesla).

Dourbes measure not only the Bx component  but also the two other By and Bz.

The amplitude of those three components from the geomagnetic field are practical the identical from place tot place at the same latitude that means on a global base.

A local disturbance will not be detected as such when the distance to the station is to great  ( due to the cubicle attenuation by the distance).

 
7.     The station in SKW (Sint Katelijne Waver) as possible UFO Detector

In studying reports of UFO phenomena the lack of measured data took my attention. Some characteristics are luckily well known for the disc like UFO as the very strong dipole magnetic field (100Tesla) and also the magnitude of it in the near proximity of the object where the Faraday effect reveals this high value.

The Sint Katelijne Waver event on 2008 October shows clearly very high peak

at 21h50 local time lasting for a total 7 minutes : in detail 2 peaks 4 minutes separated from each other .

          The local measured value has an amplitude of 60microTesla that is 40microTesla above

           the normal quiet value of the Bx component (20microTesla ).

           Some calculations ,supposing a source value of 100 Tesla on a distance of 2.5Km gives , a raising of 40 microTesla above the normal 20 microTesla is exactly the measured value!

That was the second surprise!

After  detection of the anomaly we  made a recalibration between the Helmholz coils

At that moment there was no explanation for the high values: airplanes and helicopters gave absolutely no disturbing signals at all. At that moment there was no explanation for the high values: airplanes and helicopters gave absolutely no disturbing signals at all.

The local field component was strongly interfered by an extreme high disturbing field

Because no other natural local source can be indicate seems it logic to look for something very special :  possibly the magnetic field of a nearby UFO ?

Knowing from the early UFO literature about the possible MHD driving system of a disc UFO creating a dipole field of 100 Tesla we may calculate the expected magnetic field in function of the distance taking into account that de attenuation behaviour over the distance represents a cubicle law .This calculation gives us results of approximately 40 microTesla !

The limit values for our apparatus are on maximum the sensitivity side 1 microTesla and on the saturation side 85 microTesla .The measured value of 60microTesla is comfortable between those two limits

              8.     The calibration  Helmholz configuration

           A Helmholz calibration system is setup by two coils placed on a distance from each other equal to     
           the radius of the coil. The coils are electrically connected in series .

The system gives the possibility to create a homogeneous magnetic field between the coils in the axis line. This field is direct proportional to the current through to coil configuration .It was possible to recreate the field of 40 microTesla raise in the sensor part of the magnetometer by putting it in the axis of coil set. This field gave together with  the always  present Bx field a reading of the total field of 60microTesla on the output of the magnetomer. 

          9.     Some remarks and conclusion

We had no notion of the visual observation at the moment of the registration of  the magnetic anomaly .

It is during the recalibration of the magnetometer that I realized that the registered values were so high and so out of  proportion .

Such high value were ,to my knowledge, never measured

The anomaly was very local and undetectable in Dourbes due to the big distance .

Calibration with the Helmholz equipment approved the correctness of the results.

Taking onto account :

1.     Both phenomena happened during the same narrow time window of

a few minutes.

2.  It was a flying object ,could not identified as known and looked as                                

                an oval or disc under a certain angle, with bright lights on  its

                 circumference ,no noise at all.

3.  Calculations shows there is a good agreement between the idea

     of  an unnatural source as an UFO and the measured and estimated     

     values .

                        The conclusion can be ‘a flying object of unknown type  creating big magnetic

                        field disturbances around it and in its environment”