Hi Steve

I also have a solar flare detector used for GRB detection.
http://www.infiltec.com/SID-GRB@home

Yes, magnetometers can sometimes detect solar flares since the flares
create charged particles that slam into the earth's field and
distort it.

You need to build a single axis magnetometer that has a
resolution of about 1 nano-tesla in order to detect daily
deviations in the earths magnetic
field and any solar flare effects.

I think http://www.fatquarterssoftware.com/ sensors are the least
expensive way to go for such a system.

I built simple FQ sensor system that consists of
some cheapie decade counter chips to slow down
the FQ sensor output from kHz to Hz, followed by
a PIC microprocessor that I programmed to measure
the pulse rate and give a RS232 serial output that
can be displayed on the free Amaseis seismic PC data
logging software. The main problem with my system
is that it is so sensitive that cars
within 100+ meters drive it off scale.

Happy Holidays

Dave
Baileys Crossroads, VA

--- In magnetometer@yahoogroups.com, "E.S.McCauley" <esmac@...> wrote:
>
> Hi,
> this is probably a silly question...
>
> * I am on the other end of the magnetometer...
> * I know Nothing about electronics : )
> * I do radio astronomy - solar flares - if they are Here : (
> * can
> o the magnetometer detect solar flares?
> o send data to a PC?
> o what is the Range of values in nano Tesla?
>
> Steve.