Rationale and operational plan for a U.S. high-altitude magnetic survey

Open-File Report 2002-366
By: , and 

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Abstract

On August 8, 2002, twenty-one scientists from the federal, private and academic sectors met at a workshop in Denver, Co., to discuss the feasibility of collecting magnetic anomaly data on a Canberra aircraft (Figure 1). The need for this 1-day workshop arose because of an exciting and cost-effective opportunity to collect invaluable magnetic anomaly data during a Canberra mission over the U.S. in 2003 and 2004. High Altitude Mapping Missions (HAMM) is currently planning a mission to collect Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (IFSAR) imagery at an altitude of about 15 km and with a flight-line spacing of about 18 km over the conterminous U.S. and Alaska. The additional collection of total and vector magnetic field data would represent a secondary mission objective (i.e., a "piggy-back" magnetometer system). Because HAMM would fund the main flight costs of the mission, the geomagnetic community would obtain invaluable magnetic data at a nominal cost. These unique data would provide new insights on fundamental tectonic and thermal processes and give a new view of the structural and lithologic framework of the crust and possibly the upper mantle.


This document highlights: (1) the reasons to conduct this national survey and (2) a preliminary operational plan to collect high-altitude magnetic data of a desired quality and for the expected resources. Although some operational plan issues remain to be resolved, the important conclusions of the workshop are that the Canberra is a very suitable platform to measure the magnetic field and that the planned mission will result in quality high-altitude magnetic data to greatly expand the utility of our national magnetic database.

Suggested Citation

Hildenbrand, T.G., Acuna, M., Bracken, R.E., Hardwick, D., Hinze, W.J., Keller, G.R., Phillips, J., Roest, W., 2002, Rationale and operational plan for a U.S. high-altitude magnetic survey: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2002-366, Report: iii, 22 p.; Report: TXT, https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr02366.

ISSN: 2331-1258 (online)

Study Area

Publication type Report
Publication Subtype USGS Numbered Series
Title Rationale and operational plan for a U.S. high-altitude magnetic survey
Series title Open-File Report
Series number 2002-366
DOI 10.3133/ofr02366
Year Published 2002
Language English
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Contributing office(s) Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center
Description Report: iii, 22 p.; Report: TXT
Country United States
Additional Online Files (Y/N) Y
Additional publication details