A RECURSIVE OPTIMISED ALGORITHM FOR IN- FLIGHT MAGNETOMETER CALIBRATION WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE OF ATTITUDE

摘要

Theory and actual practice is given, showing that an attitude-sensing magnetometer can be fully and autonomously calibrated (12 coefficients) in flight without independent knowledge of attitude of the satellite. This may seem unlikely but is in fact quite feasible. We rely however on one special condition: that the type of satellite naturally maintains a rough zenith-nadir pointing, under the effect of gravity gradient; and it also maintains a slow spin about that axis, requiring axial symmetry.