Estimating magnetic field using a network of satellites

A system comprising:

• a processor, a computer readable memory, a non-transitory computer readable storage medium associated with a computing device, and program instructions executable by the computing device to cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:
• receiving, by a computing device, magnetometer measurements from a plurality of globally distributed satellites, wherein the magnetometer measurements from the plurality of globally distributed satellites globally and simultaneously cover magnetic field measurements of an area encompassing the Earth;
• generating, by the computing device, a magnetic field model of the Earth based on the receiving the magnetometer measurements;
• refining the magnetic field model by grouping the magnetometer measurements into area groupings and applying spherical harmonic functions to calculate amplitudes at each area grouping to generate a refined magnetic field model;
• and
• storing or outputting, by the computing device, the magnetic field model, the refined magnetic field model, or both.

A computer-implemented method comprising:

• receiving, by a computing device, magnetometer measurements from a plurality of globally distributed satellites, wherein the magnetometer measurements from the plurality of globally distributed satellites globally and simultaneously cover magnetic field measurements of an area encompassing the Earth;
• generating, by the computing device, a magnetic field model of the Earth based on the receiving the magnetometer measurements;
• refining the magnetic field model by grouping the magnetometer measurements into a latitude bin and a longitude bin, taking averages within each of the latitude bin and the longitude bin, applying a convolution calculation to derive spherical harmonic coefficients representing unique wavelength components in one or residual maps, and correcting the magnetic field model from the time series of the spherical harmonic coefficients by filtering out artifacts and other contamination signals to generate a refined magnetic field model;
• and
• storing or outputting, by the computing device, the magnetic field model, the refined magnetic field model, or both.