Higher-order singular value tensor decomposition and Fourier synchrosqueezing transform-based tuning frequency estimation of a proton precession magnetometer

The frequency of the free induction decay (FID) signal output from an Overhauser magnetometer sensor is proportional to the magnetic field to be measured. Due to the low initial signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), sensor tuning is necessary to suppress the noise and thus improve the frequency estimation accuracy. To improve the tuning performance in complex strong-disturbance environments, this paper introduces a novel method using higher-order singular value tensor decomposition (HOSVTD) and Fourier synchrosqueezing transform (FSST), namely HOSVTD-FSST. The experimental results demonstrate that under the presence of spike noise and the SNR is less than -20 dB, the frequency tuning deviations of the commonly used methods are up to 100 Hz, while that of the HOSVTD-FSST is within 5 Hz, which verifies that the HOSVTD-FSST can significantly enhance the sensor tuning accuracy in complex strong-disturbance conditions and has a strong ability for environmental adaptation.