A new software for the measurement of magnetic moments using SQUID and spinner magnetometers

A new software package, called CryoMag, facilitates the measurement of magnetic moments using both 3-component (i.e. Superconducting Quantum Interference Device) and 2-component (i.e. spinner) magnetometers. The measurement process is optimized for, but not limited to, stepwise demagnetization experiments commonly used in paleomagnetism. A graphical representation of the data is always visible to the user in the form of orthogonal, stereonet and decay diagrams, which can be represented in in situ, geographic or tilt corrected coordinates and can be saved as graphics files. Instrument specific settings, as well as arbitrary measurement positions, can be easily customized in a single configuration file. A comprehensive record of detailed measurement and statistical data is stored in XML (eXtensible Markup Language) based data files (*.cmag.xml). The final results of the measurements can be exported to several common file formats for further processing. The software is written in Python, an open source, cross-platform programming language and can therefore be used on popular operating systems like Windows. Linux and MacOS X. The complete source code is available on request from the author. The CryoMag open-source allows anyone to adapt the software to their specific equipment, file format and experimental requirements. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.