Assessment of a Low-Cost Magneto-Inductive Magnetometer for Personal Space Weather Stations

Low-cost ground-based magnetometers are an important component of Personal Space Weather Station (PSWS) efforts, yet their performance in urban residential environments remains poorly constrained. This work investigates how nearby homes and urban electromagnetic interference influence the noise floor of the RM3100 magneto-inductive magnetometer. Four short-duration measurements were conducted at two locations within a residential property to examine this question. At each location, magnetic field data were collected using a pipe-based apparatus and within a shielded cage, resulting in four experimental configurations. Each measurement spanned approximately one week, producing a total of four weeks of data. Noise characteristics and signal stability are compared across locations and shielding conditions to evaluate the hypothesis that shielding reduces environmental interference and that RM3100-based systems deployed in urban settings can provide data suitable for PSWS applications. By characterizing the limitations and practical considerations of residential magnetometer deployments, this work supports the use of low-cost instrumentation in citizen science, amateur radio–driven space weather studies, and distributed ground-based monitoring networks relevant to both community participants and the broader space physics community.