The Statistical Analysis of Noise in Triaxial Magnetometers and Calibration Procedure

This paper examines the statistical behaviour of noise in triaxial sensors, particularly magnetometers. It is shown by statistical test that the sensor noise does not follow a Normal distribution as is commonly assumed. Beside noise, other sources of error in readings of magnetometers are discussed. The combined effects of errors are demonstrated by a mathematical model, which helps calibrating magnetometer readings under the Maximum Likelihood Estimator scheme. Calibrated data is aligned to the sensor frame in order to be applied later in navigation applications, where the North finding problem is solved by true geomagnetic readings.