Monitoring the dipole moment vector of an airborne electromagnetic survey system

An airborne electromagnetic survey system that monitors the dipole moment. A TDEM system includes a flexible transmitter loop and a receiver having three sensors with mutually perpendicular sensitive axes. In flight, mechanical and aerodynamic forces cause the transmitter loop to tilt and flex, which affects the direction and magnitude of the primary field dipole moment. The processing system measures the sign and amplitude of the primary field sensed by the receiver in each of its sensitive axes and calculates a vector which represents the orientation of the primary field in the receiver frame of reference at the receiver location. Using this vector, the processing system determines the orientation of the primary field dipole moment.