Quantifying the Advantage of Vector over Scalar Magnetic Sensor Networks for Undersea Surveillance
Abstract
Magnetic monitoring of maritime environments is an important problem for monitoring and optimising shipping, as well as national security. New developments in compact, fibre-coupled quantum magnetometers have led to the opportunity to critically evaluate how best to create such a sensor network. Here we explore various magnetic sensor network architectures for target identification. Our modelling compares networks of scalar vs. vector magnetometers. We implement an unscented Kalman filter approach to perform target tracking, and we find that vector networks provide a significant improvement in target tracking, specifically tracking accuracy and resilience compared with scalar networks.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research
Magnetic Field Sensors Techniques
Inertial Sensor and Navigation
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Sensors
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Volume
- 26
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 1290–1290
- Publication date
- 16 February 2026
- Language
- EN