The laboratory was set up with a GINOP grant worth more than 400 million HUF, according to the joint statement of the Research Institute of Earth and Space Physics and the Wegener Research Center for Physics of the Hungarian Research Network (Hon-Ren).
Earth’s magnetic field is present everywhere on Earth’s surface. On the one hand, this magnetic field is very useful, as it allows compass navigation, and forms a magnetic shield to protect the Earth from charged particles that make up radiation coming from space. On the other hand, the same magnetic field makes it very difficult to make accurate and high-precision magnetic measurements on the Earth’s surface, and to clean some magnetosensitive processes from the influence of the magnetic field.
Some biological phenomena, for example, such as brain activity or fetal heart function, can be monitored very well with the help of the tiny magnetic fields that they create,
But these areas are usually blocked by the Earth’s larger magnetic field. Similarly, magnetic fields frozen in magnetizable minerals in rocks can hold a lot of useful information, but they can also only be observed in a magnetically clean environment.
In addition to the above, there are many other applications that require a magnetically clean, low-field environment. To address this need, the world’s leading research institutes have created so-called magnetically clean laboratories. From now on, this research infrastructure will also be available in Hungary, at the István Széchenyi Geophysical Observatory area in Virtopuz.
The laboratory was established with the primary purpose of conducting geophysical measurements, simulating magnetic conditions in space, testing the magnetic purity of space instruments, and developing space research instruments. In addition, the laboratory is open to all scientific and technological developments that require a low-volume, magnetically clean environment.
as written,
The world-class laboratory location ensures maximum possible freedom from electromagnetic interference,
Because the Széchenyi István Geophysical Observatory is located in the Fertő-Hanság National Park, above thick sedimentary rock layers, in a geophysically very calm environment. The best possible filtering of the Earth’s magnetic field is ensured by the cooperation between the active compensation and the passive protection system.
Active compensation is achieved by means of a three-dimensional coil system consisting of coils with a side length of 9 meters placed on the walls of the hall that houses the laboratory and its drive electronics, and the compensation area is continuously changed according to fluctuations in the Earth’s magnetic field with a precision of a second.
Out of environmental awareness, the problem of supplying the system with solar panels was solved.
A shading room with a floor area of 3 x 3 meters which provides passive shading is located at the focal point of the coil system. The walls of the chamber are covered in several layers with protective plates made of a special alloy, which, thanks to its special magnetic properties, “absorbs” the magnetic lines of force of the residual field, so that only a magnetic field so low to interplanetary space can be measured inside the chamber. High-frequency electromagnetic disturbances are shielded by an additional thick, well-conducting metal layer.
