Magnetometer data errors and lunar induction studies

Errors in lunar magnetic field data acquired by the Apollo 12, 15 and 16 surface magnetometers and the two magnetometers on board the lunar-orbiting Explorer 35 satellite are examined and the implications of these errors for investigations of lunar magnetic induction are discussed. It is found that during the first four lunations of Apollo 12 magnetometer operation, the gain and offset differences with respect to the Explorer magnetomers are 1 to 2% and 0.5 gamma, respectively, with close agreement between the two Explorer magnetometers, but increase up to 60% and 1 gamma by the eighth lunation, accompanied by the degradation of the agreement between the orbital instruments, which indicates the malfunction of the Explorer instruments by the fifth lunation. An additional anomaly, associated with the exit of the spacecraft from the lunar shadow is also found, along with the nonlinear field response of the Apollo 15 magnetometer near zero field and small magnitude noise in the surface magnetometers. The effects of gain errors on electrical conductivity determinations are estimated and previously published lunar magnetic permeability results are adjusted to account for magnetometer gain uncertainties, yielding a permeability of 1.012 + or - 0.011.