Magnetic environment stabilization for effective operation of magnetically sensitive instruments

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The present invention overcomes the problems in the prior art by providing systems and methods for controlling the magnetic environment around a magnetically sensitive instrument including magnetically active instruments.
More specifically, the claimed systems and methods provide control to both slowly wandering DC and AC magnetic field components which significantly degrade the operational performance of the instrument.
The compensation system comprises an electromagnetic coil means, a feedback means, and an offset means.
The electromagnetic coil means substantially surrounds the instrument and produces at least one primary magnetic field around the instrument in response to magnetic instabilities detected in the environment of the instrument.
The feedback means has an input for receiving signals indicative of the detected instabilities and an output coupled to the electromagnetic coil means for controlling the magnitude of the primary magnetic field produced thereby in response to the detected instabilities.
The offset means is operatively interfaced with the instrument for producing an offsetting magnetic field for substantially neutralizing secondary magnetic fields produced by the instrument.
The offset means renders the detected magnetic instabilities substantially free of any secondary magnetic field effects, so that the feedback means controls the magnitude of the primary magnetic field substantially free of effects of the secondary magnetic field.
The compensation system may further comprise a processing means having an input for receiving data indicative of the detected instabilities.
The processing means integrates the received data to provide statistically error free signals, which it provides as an output coupled to the feedback means for producing the statistically error free signals.
The processing means also monitors the input data and provides an output to a warning means for informing a user of the instrument of a characteristic of the primary magnetic environment