Satellite-assisted laser magnetometry with mesospheric sodium
Atomic Physics
2021-11-03 v2
Abstract
Magnetic field sensing provides crucial insights into various geophysical phenomena such as atmospheric currents, crustal magnetism, and oceanic circulation. In this paper, a method for remote detection of magnetic fields using mesospheric sodium with an assisting satellite is proposed. Sodium atoms in the mesosphere are optically pumped with a ground-based laser beam. A satellite-borne detector is used to measure magneto-optical rotation of the polarization of a probe laser beam by the sodium atoms. This sensitive magnetometry method benefits from direct detection of laser photons and complements existing space- and aircraft-borne techniques by probing magnetic fields at upper-atmospheric altitudes inaccessible to those.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2109.13555,
title = {Satellite-assisted laser magnetometry with mesospheric sodium},
author = {Tong Dang and Emmanuel Klinger and Felipe Pedreros Bustos and Arne Wickenbrock and Ronald Holzlöhner and Dmitry Budker},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2109.13555},
year = {2021}
}