Objectives  This study proposes a measurement scheme based on the Kalman filtering method for improving efficiency and lowering complexity in measuring the magnetization parameters of shipboard three-component geomagnetic field measurement systems.

  Methods  The principles and characteristics of magnetization in the mathematical model of a shipboard three-component geomagnetic field measurement system are studied. The steps for applying the Kalman filtering algorithm are used to compute the ship's magnetization parameters. Then, computer simulation and mockup experiment were conducted to testify its validity.

  Results  The simulation and experiment show that the three-component geomagnetic field can be computed precisely, and the algorithm performs well in convergence with a small sampling of data.

  Conclusions  Therefore, the Kalman filtering method has higher efficiency and lower cost in the practice of measuring a ship's magnetization parameters.