01
Synchronised source data
Time-aligned airborne BlueCapBird® measurements and the BlueCapBird® Base Station Diurnal Monitor use one database structure and an identical data format.
BlueCap Australia
Drone Magnetic Survey & Mapping
BlueCap flies Australia's most accurate drone magnetic surveys — quantum magnetometers, 1 m terrain following and live QC — accuracy your drill plan can trust.
Watch the geology appear out of one magnetic survey
- Survey area
- 12,555.6 km²104.0 × 120.8 km block
- Magnetic samples
- 251.6 M0.5 m along 125,781 km of line
- Six products, cold start
- 2.46 sResidual · RTP · 1VD · 2VD · AS · TILT
Every product in this animation is included in the standard delivery
The standard package is included in the BlueCap drone survey day rate and prepared for geophysics, GIS and interpretation teams, with no additional charge based on flight distance, survey duration, acquisition frequency or database size. The six versioned products — Residual, RTP, 1VD, 2VD, Analytic Signal and Tilt — are processed about 10 minutes after the aircraft lands, the same field day.
- Unchanged RAW + base station
- Read-only PostgreSQL
- GIS-ready TMI grids
- Six versioned products
- GeoTIFF/COG · GRD · KMZ · CSV
Standard magnetic data package
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Raw database access
Controlled read-only PostgreSQL access exposes raw, unfiltered flight-line data for Oasis montaj, GIS, third-party geophysical software and custom processing pipelines.
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Standard TMI grids
GIS-ready Total Magnetic Intensity rasters use synchronised ground-reference data, diurnal correction, IGRF removal and standard levelling.
From source grid to interpretation-ready surfaces
Residual magnetic field
The residual magnetic surface retained as a traceable, versioned processing product.
Reduction to the Pole
A stabilised RTP surface with the field, magnetisation and damping parameters preserved.
First Vertical Derivative
A first vertical derivative surface generated from the selected source product.
Second Vertical Derivative
A second vertical derivative surface for higher-frequency magnetic detail.
Analytic Signal
Analytic signal amplitude generated from the selected magnetic source.
Tilt Derivative
A tilt-derivative surface supplied alongside the source and other magnetic products.
Synchronised measurement channels
The standard delivery includes a high-rate 60 Hz time-series database in which each record contains the full set of synchronised onboard measurements.
Quantum magnetic channelBlueCapBird Light · integrated QuSpin QTFM Gen 2 Quantum Rubidium Atomic Magnetometer
- Downsampled from 1 kHz to 60 Hz using anti-alias polyphase FIR decimation, then stabilised with a lightweight Kalman filter
- Low-pass filter disabled
- Frame time in milliseconds from start
- Scalar magnetic field |B|
- Sensitivity / error metric
- Measurement validity flag (true/false)
Motion, position & timeIMU · GNSS · UTC
- Accelerometer: Ax, Ay, Az
- Gyroscope: Gx, Gy, Gz
- WGS84 longitude / latitude: ~0.1–0.5 m accuracy
- Ellipsoidal altitude
- DOP: HDOP + VDOP
- Millisecond-resolution GNSS time in UTC
Terrain clearance & powerLiDAR AGL · electrical state
- LiDAR distance to the nearest reflective surface return in centimetres
- Downsampled 400 Hz to 60 Hz
- Battery voltage to two decimal places
- Voltage consumption rate in V/min
The cloud-secured PostgreSQL connection is read-only. Project-specific host, port, database, user and IP-whitelisting credentials secure the read-only connection.
Accuracy decides the drill plan
Conventional drone magnetics can produce polished maps while terrain geometry, own-field platform noise or missing short-wavelength signal remain unresolved. For a mineral exploration magnetic survey those are acquisition risks, not styling problems — and after more than ten years of drone geomagnetics across platforms, countries and terrains, BlueCap has seen each of them on real surveys.
Four conventional-UAV failures — and the BlueCap answer to each
01
Terrain-following errorWrong targets and wrong depths
Public DEM errors of 10–50 m in hills plus 3–10 m multirotor AGL drift can push total height error towards 60 m, producing roughly 50–300% amplitude bias and incorrect depth or extent estimates.
The BlueCap answerBlueCap flies a 1 m corridor against its own LiDAR terrain model and records true sensor height in flight — amplitudes stay geological, not artefacts of the flight path.
02
Platform magnetic noiseSmall bodies go unseen
An ultra-sensitive magnetometer like the QTFM also senses the drone platform carrying it — its electronics, cables, batteries and carbon structures. The elevated noise floor can obscure low-amplitude near-surface or narrow anomalies.
The BlueCap answerThe towed BlueCapBird® carries just 12.2 g of metal at least 20 m below the aircraft, so the platform's own field stays below the sensor noise floor and weak anomalies survive.
03
Irrecoverable acquisition lossProcessing cannot recover a signal that was never measured
Processing can tidy linework and colour scales, but lost high-frequency content is non-recoverable and cannot be recreated after acquisition.
The BlueCap answerLow terrain-hugging acquisition at 25–50 m sensor AGL keeps the short wavelengths in the record, and live QC catches a degraded line while it can still be re-flown.
04
Survey productivitySlow flying just to keep the sensor on terrain
Conventional multirotors typically slow to 5–10 m/s so the aircraft can sink with falling terrain. Field seasons stretch, and every extra day is aircraft, crew and logistics cost.
The BlueCap answerBlueCap flies production lines at 30–40 m/s, often with three helicopters working in parallel. Each trajectory is physically modelled against the LiDAR terrain before flight, and the helicopter with the actively controlled bird applies negative thrust to descend as fast as the relief demands.
BlueCap field experiment · normalised interpretation
Drag the sensor height and watch the anomaly lose definition
Move BlueCapBird Light and its integrated QuSpin QTFM Gen 2 sensor through the 25–50 m AGL range used in BlueCap's field experiment. This explorer applies a first-order 1/r³ compact-source model against the 35 m reference; it is a model of source-distance effects, not the observed site curves.
Calculated first-order dipole interpretation shown separately from BlueCap's processed four-site observations. In the field experiment, BlueCapHeli® ascended above BlueCapBird Light on a pre-measured 20 m suspension while its integrated QTFM Gen 2 sensor recorded the free-yaw height sequence.
25 m35 m reference50 m
- Peak response vs 35 m
- 100%reference geometry
- Width at half response
- ≈54 mvs ≈54 m at the reference
We don't fly magnetic surveys so you or your investors get pretty coloured pictures. We fly them so your next drilling programme actually pays off — the right holes, in the right spots, without burning budget on misses. Everything we build, from the aircraft to the software, is aimed at exactly that.
Drone magnetic survey cost and schedule
The rate is this low because the aircraft are fast: one BlueCapHeli® flies ≈700 line-km in a day — and on larger blocks BlueCap often flies two or three helicopters at once — so mobilisation and crew costs spread across far more kilometres — around half the price of a comparable electric-multirotor drone survey, and a fraction of comparable crewed-aircraft quotes. Set your block size and line spacing below for indicative drone magnetic survey pricing; BlueCap confirms terrain, access and the final acquisition design in the quotation.
Magnetic survey indicative cost & schedule
Drones flying in parallelOne BlueCap field team operates the selected number of drones in parallel. Staffing scales to 5, 9 or 13 people and includes Chief Pilot, Operator Pilot, Junior Pilot, Spotters and Assistant roles.
- Estimated production flying days required by the selected flight line-km and number of parallel drones. Project flying operational days are calendar days when the field team is deployed in the survey area and conducting operational activities.
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- Estimated mobilisation period covering team travel to and from the project site together with non-flying and flying operational days.
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Indicative totalA$150,000Mobilisation within Australia included
Data you can drill on
Why BlueCap data is this accurate — and why it doesn't need re-checking
Accuracy is engineered in twice. First, the instrument is simply better — a quantum magnetometer on a magnetically clean towed bird, with its true height measured in flight. Second, three calibrations are flown into every mission — zero-crossing, a double cloverleaf and tie lines — so a BlueCap dataset does not need a verification survey after it.
- QTFM Gen 2
Quantum sensing — simply a better instrument
The QuSpin QTFM Gen 2 sensor integrated inside BlueCapBird Light senses below 3 pT/√Hz, so intrinsic sensor noise sits under the geological signals that matter.
- 12.2 g
Non-magnetic towed payload
The complete towed BlueCapBird® carries just 12.2 grams of metal, all of it more than a metre from the QTFM, and flies no less than 20 metres below the helicopter on the BlueCapWinch®. Certified fully non-magnetic Li-ion cells and a structure without carbon fibre keep the payload's own signature below the sensor noise floor.
- 120 m Range LiDAR
True sensor height on every sample
An independent Range LiDAR on the bird records actual sensor AGL for QC and project-specific height modelling; no universal scalar height correction is assumed.
Three calibrations, flown into every mission
None of this is a separate service or an optional extra — all three are planned into every BlueCap sortie in the Survey Portal and flown before and alongside the production lines.
Zero-crossing calibration — sensitivity tuned to the day
BlueCap is the only operator with automatic ZC (zero-crossing) calibration before every mission — on climb-out the algorithm experimentally sets the most effective zero-crossing point for maximum sensitivity in that day's magnetic environment.
Double cloverleaf — a 16-direction heading matrix
A cloverleaf flight measures how the platform's residual field changes with flight direction, so heading error can be modelled and corrected. The conventional cloverleaf samples 8 headings; BlueCap flies a double cloverleaf and builds a 16-direction correction matrix — twice the angular resolution of the standard pattern. It is flown at the start of each mission, in the same climb-out as the automatic ZC calibration, so both the sensor and the heading model are tuned to that day's magnetic environment.
Tie lines — the levelling standard that removes doubt
Tie lines cross the survey lines at right angles, creating crossover points where the same field is measured twice at different times. Crossover differences expose diurnal drift and any residual line-to-line error, so levelling in post-processing is anchored to measurements instead of assumptions. BlueCap flies tie lines on every survey at 5–10× the production spacing — typically 400 m on a 50 m grid — at the same height as the production lines and at production speed, slowing on short lines so the sensor settles. That acquisition standard keeps the delivered grids defensible without a check survey.
Aeromagnetic survey design, field productivity and measurement control
Survey geometry, platform capacity and measurement control are planned as one acquisition system — line spacing, the 1 m AGL corridor and all three calibrations (zero-crossing, the double cloverleaf and tie lines) sit in the same flight plan. Productivity and detail are read together, never apart.
Flight planner
Survey geometry & flight plan
Density and line design in the online flight planner
- Line spacing
- 25, 50, 100 m
- Tie-line spacing
- 5–10 × line spacing · typically 400 m
- Altitude control
- 1 m corridor · LiDAR DSM or SRTM
- Platform flight speed
- 80–140 km/h
25, 50, 100 m
5–10 × line spacing · typically 400 m
1 m corridor · LiDAR DSM or SRTM
80–140 km/hLive measurement control
LIVEMeasurement quality & live QC
QuSpin QTFM Gen 2 Quantum Rubidium Atomic Magnetometer
- Along-track recording interval
- 0.37–0.65 m per record60 Hz synchronised record — ≈0.37 m at 80 km/h · 0.46 m at 100 km/h · 0.65 m at 140 km/h
- Live QC
- line plots + base-station diurnal monitor
One integrated drone magnetic survey system
Aircraft, quantum magnetometers, the ground reference station, survey crews and the automated portal workflow are operated as one field system rather than handed between separate contractors.
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Long-Endurance 25 kg Petrol Helicopters · Australian-engineered & builtBlueCapHeli®
The medium-sized helicopter-class carrier provides endurance, speed and terrain authority for large, low-level magnetic survey programmes.
02
BlueCapBird Light · integrated QuSpin QTFM Gen 2 Quantum Rubidium Atomic MagnetometerBlueCapBird® Light & Fast
BlueCapBird® Light is optimised for low-speed ~3–15 m/s surveys; BlueCapBird® Fast supports 10–40 m/s terrain-hugging acquisition and maximum productivity. The same instrument also works on the ground as the magnetic base station for diurnal control.
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Geophysicists · remote pilots · engineers · processing specialistsBlueCap Survey Team
One accountable survey team works across challenging climates and terrain from acquisition planning through final QA.
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BlueCap Survey PortalAutomated Survey Workflow
Survey design and scope; Quotation & project finance; Field acquisition and progress; Post-processing, review & deliveries remain connected in one project workspace — BlueCap-owned servers and processing algorithms run it end to end.
AircraftQuantum sensorSurvey teamPortal workflow
Standard magnetic processing delivery
Magnetic processing without the black box
The six standard products shown above are computed in one professional workspace with nothing hidden — each surface is a separate, versioned result, and the original measurements are never modified or replaced.
Synchronous 2D comparison
Pan and zoom source and processed surfaces together while inspecting the same survey position.
3D magnetic drape
Review magnetic products on a flat plane or draped over the available real terrain model.
Point-value inspection
Hover across selected products or pin one grid cell for a persistent side-by-side comparison.
2–3seconds
- Benchmark grid
- 859 × 1,006 cells
- Outputs per run
- six products
Processing scale500 millionairborne and ground magnetometer data points
Measured processing visibility
Processing at the speed of interpretation
Changing a processing parameter automatically starts a server-side recalculation; there is no separate Apply step. On the current example 859 × 1,006-cell grid, all six magnetic products calculate in approximately 2–3 seconds. The same workspace processes 500 million airborne and ground magnetometer data points. Repeated requests with the same parameters are served from cache.
Professional controls, simple workflow
Geophysicists can adjust the processing and presentation while the selected maps stay synchronised. Hovering reports the same cell across products, and a point can be pinned for comparison.
Magnetic field model
- Magnetic-field and magnetisation direction
- RTP stabilisation damping
- Upward continuation
Filters and FFT
- Low-pass and high-pass wavelengths
- Butterworth order
- FFT edge taper and reflected padding
Product and colour
- Derivative and Analytic Signal source products
- Percentile stretch
- GEO, RGB, diverging and greyscale palettes
- Magnetic-layer opacity
3D presentation
- Magnetic-relief vertical exaggeration
- Terrain vertical exaggeration
- 3D camera position
Interoperable delivery
Export once, use anywhere
Spatial products, tabular extracts and the processing record can be downloaded in standard geophysical and GIS formats.
- GeoTIFF and Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF
- Surfer GRD
- Arc/Info ASCII Grid
- PNG
- Google Earth KMZ
- CSV and GeoJSON
- Processing manifest
- QC report
Four views of one survey, product by product
These are real BlueCap Survey Portal views of project data. Each product answers a different question, so step through them the way a geophysicist reads them — they are different lenses on the survey, not stages of a conveyor.
Views are taken from the BlueCap Survey Portal on real project data. Product selection, parameters and interpretation limits are agreed per project; these frames illustrate the product types, not a fixed processing order.
Custom geophysical processing & interpretation
The standard BlueCap delivery already includes unchanged RAW data and six versioned magnetic products. When a project requires operations outside that package, BlueCap geophysicists provide custom geophysical processing, big-data post-processing, workflow development and project-specific interpretation at A$2,550 per working day. Only specialist working time is billable; copying and transferring project data is not charged.
A$2,550per working day · time and materialsNo chargedata copying and transfer processes
Specialist work outside the standard package
BlueCap geophysicists define the workflow for the project. Automation accelerates repeatable operations, while expert review remains part of every delivered result.
Custom geophysical processing
- Custom correction, levelling, microlevelling and signal-conditioning workflows outside the standard six-product package
- Processing of legacy, third-party and mixed-sensor datasets with project-specific method selection
- Bespoke filters, transformations and derived products designed around the geological question
Big-data post-processing
- Batch post-processing of large multi-flight, multi-block and multi-vintage datasets
- Data harmonisation, coordinate and metadata normalisation, QA/QC and repeatable production runs
- Custom automation and server-side pipelines for operations that would be impractical to perform manually
Interpretation and modelling
- Structural interpretation, lineament and contact mapping, target ranking and integration with geology or drilling
- 2D and 3D modelling, including magnetic susceptibility inversion where appropriate to the project
- Project-specific maps, models, technical notes and interpretation outputs prepared for the client's decision workflow
Custom outputs & technical record
Data · models · maps · technical notesEach custom engagement defines its inputs, methods, outputs and acceptance criteria before processing begins. Data copying and transfer processes remain unbilled. Additional results preserve source checksums, coordinate reference systems, parameters and version history so the work remains traceable and reproducible.
Custom geophysical products
Project-specific grids, transforms, models, data extracts and presentation outputs are supplied in the formats agreed for the client's workflow.
Big-data processing record
Run parameters, processing logs, data lineage, QA/QC summaries and source checksums document the custom workflow.
Interpretation package
Maps, models, tables and technical notes are organised around the geological question and the client's decision process.
Drone Magnetic Survey FAQ
How much does a drone magnetic survey cost in Australia?
The indicative all-inclusive planning rate is A$65 per line-kilometre, with mobilisation within Australia included. The final price depends on survey area, line spacing, terrain, access and the required deliverables. Use the calculator on this page for an instant estimate, or open the complete drone survey cost calculator for international missions and downloadable estimates.
What line spacing should I choose — 25 m, 50 m or 100 m?
25 m produces a dense magnetic grid for detailed targeting, 50 m is the common detailed production standard, and 100 m suits draft or reconnaissance coverage before a tighter survey is commissioned. Tie lines are flown on every survey at 5–10× the production spacing, so the delivered grids remain defensible at any of the three plans.
What data does a drone magnetic survey deliver?
The standard package includes the unchanged RAW record, the synchronised base-station diurnal monitor, controlled read-only PostgreSQL access, GIS-ready TMI grids and six versioned magnetic products — Residual, RTP, 1VD, 2VD, Analytic Signal and Tilt Derivative — exported in standard geophysical and GIS formats. Processed products are delivered about 10 minutes after the aircraft lands, the same field day.
Is a drone magnetic survey the same as an aeromagnetic survey?
Yes — an aeromagnetic survey is any airborne magnetic survey, and BlueCap flies it with long-endurance drone helicopters instead of crewed aircraft. The towed quantum magnetometer follows terrain at 25–50 m sensor AGL, far closer to the ground than conventional crewed aeromagnetic flying, so short-wavelength anomalies from small near-surface sources survive in the delivered data. The same platform also carries drone radiometric survey and mapping with a Medusa MS-1000 gamma-ray spectrometer.
Why does magnetometer height above ground matter?
For a compact source, anomaly amplitude changes approximately with the inverse cube of distance — a 10 m terrain-following error can read as different geology. BlueCap plans a 1 m corridor against the LiDAR terrain model and records actual sensor AGL with an independent Range LiDAR for QC and project-specific height modelling; no universal scalar height correction is assumed.
Can BlueCap process or reprocess legacy and third-party magnetic data?
Yes. BlueCap geophysicists take on custom geophysical processing, big-data post-processing and project-specific interpretation of legacy, third-party and mixed-sensor datasets at A$2,550 per working day. Copying and transferring project data is not charged.
Project enquiry
BlueCap Starts with the Survey Decision
We use the Portal to turn your survey polygon into a quote-ready BlueCap project, review DEM-aware 2D and 3D mission design, follow field acquisition, and keep processing outputs and deliverables in one client workspace.
No software subscription fee for BlueCap service projects.
