Accurate and low-cost ENEA solar compass for precision metrology of true azimuth: instrumental and smart versions
S. Bollanti, Fabrizio Andreoli, Lili Cafarella, Domenico De Meis, P. Di Lazzaro, Domenico Di Mauro, F. Flora, Gian Piero Gallerano, L. Mezi, D. Murra, Luca Murra, D. Vicca, Giordano Vicoli, A. Zirizzotti · 2020
The accurate determination of the azimuth of a given direction, e.g., the true (geographic) North, is of fundamental importance in many fields. Just as few examples, it guides buildings construction in civil engineering, supports environmental and cartographic surveys, allows the correct positioning and stability control of concentrating solar power plants, as well as of airport installations, provides the geographic North reference for geomagnetic measurements, contributes to the interpretation of the orientation choices of ancient constructions in archeoastronomy, can be the primary benchmark to calibrate other compasses or gyroscopes. When aiming at reaching azimuth measurements with accuracies well below 1°, magnetic compasses are unreliable: firstly, they indicate the magnetic North rather than the geographic one; secondly, they are heavily influenced by possible surrounding ferromagnetic items.