iwantyoutoimagineforamomentthatyouarethecaptain（iwantyoutoimagineforamomentthatyouarethecaptain）.docVIP

Physicist’s search for the ultimate magnetic camouflage. Tim Baynes New research into magnetism in ships and submarines has lead to the development of a more efficient way of protecting military and civilian vessels from the threat of magnetic sensing marine mines. Until now, the process of magnetically camouflaging ships and submarines has remained something of a black art. Imagine you are the captain of a submarine in the Royal Australian Navy (R.A.N.). Your mission is to slip unnoticed into the relatively shallow water of a harbour in a region of recent unrest. Australian Peace Keeping troops have been told that they’re going to land in that harbour at dawn tomorrow but before they do, they want you to go in and see who or what’s there that might be a problem for them: a bit of reconnaissance. You’re inside the harbour, you’ve dived to periscope depth. As far as radar is concerned you don’t exist. You could be spotted with sonar but you’ve checked out the area and there doesn’t appear to be any other ships or submarines around. The one thing that you will be mortally afraid of is that the bottom of that harbour might be strewn with magnetic sensing marine mines. The popular misconception is that all marine mines are magnetically attracted to the hull of a vessel. It is true that in the past some mines were detonated through mechanical contact (see Figure 1.) but most modern mines are more likely to be lying in wait on the seabed. These are triggered by a sensitive device that looks for variations in the ambient magnetic field. Variations such as a distortion of the Earth’s field caused by many thousands of tons of ship steel passing overhead. The situation would be even more dangerous for those onboard if that steel itself was magnetised. Another consideration, is air-borne magnetic anomaly detectors or MADs. These work in a similar way to the mines but they are even more sensitive and are used particularly to hunt submarines that have dived below (see F