Research project IM/RT/23/MAGSCREEN (Research action IM)
Solid rocks, sediments and baked archaeological material contain tiny magnetic minerals and can therefore provide information about changes in the Earth's magnetic field in the past. This fact is used, for example, to date archaeological structures and sedimentary sequences, or to study polarity reversals of the Earth's magnetic field.
Since these tiny magnetic minerals occur in very low concentrations, sophisticated special instruments are required to measure the magnetisation (magnetic remanence) of such materials. In order to increase measurement accuracy and to be able to measure very weakly magnetised materials, these instruments must ideally be housed in a magnetic shield to protect them from the influence of the Earth's magnetic field and other magnetic or electromagnetic disturbances.
The aim of MAGSCREEN is to design and build a large magnetically shielded working environment housing necessary instruments for measuring magnetic remanence, such as demagnetisation devices and a cryogenic rockmagnetometer. This magnetic shielding environment will reduce the noise floor of the cryogenic rockmagnetometer by three orders of magnitude, allowing the measurement of weakly magnetic samples such as marine and lake sediments and increase measurement precision. Another aim of the project is to conceive magnetic shielding environments in particular for the emerging class optically pumped mini-sensors used for example for biological research, medical applications or for cryogen-free rock magnetometers currently entering the scientific instrumentation market.
The Federal Science Policy has prioritised this project in order to sustainably strengthen federal research infrastructures. MAGSCREEN makes the unique Geophysical Centre of the Royal Meteorological Institute even more competitive in scientific research at international level and, in the longer term, opens up further opportunities for future technological developments in the field of magnetic instrumentation and related applications.
