Self-Calibrating Magnetometer

A self-calibrating magnetometer system, comprising:

• a magnetometer having three sense coils arranged to detect magnetic fields along three axes, each sense coil is configured to detect magnetic fields along one of the three axes and the three axes are orthogonal to each other;
• a set of Helmholtz coils arranged adjacent to the magnetometer and configured to generate magnetic fields for calibration, each Helmholtz coil is arranged in parallel with one of the three axes;
• a current source electrically coupled to the set of Helmholt coils, where the current source is configured to energize each coil in the set of Helmholtz coils with a signal that varies over time and has a different frequency from the other two coils in the set of Helmholtz coils;
• and
• a controller interfaced with the magnetometer to receive the magnetic fields detected by the three sense coils and calibrates magnetic fields measured by the magnetometer in accordance with expected magnetic field values.