Swarm’s absolutemagnetometer experimental vectormode, an innovative capability for space magnetometry

Gauthier Hulot (1) , Pierre Vigneron (1) , Jean-Michel Léger (2) , Isabelle Fratter (3) , Nils Olsen (4) , Thomas Jager (2) , François Bertrand (2) , Laura Brocco (1) , Olivier Sirol (1) , Xavier Lalanne (1) , Axel Boness (2) , Viviane Cattin (2)

1 IPGP - Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris
2 CEA-LETI - Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives - Laboratoire d'Electronique et de Technologie de l'Information
3 CNES - Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse]
4 DTU Space - National Space Institute [Lyngby]

European Space Agency’s Swarm satellites carry a new generation of 4He absolute magnetometers (ASM), designed by CEA-Léti and developed in partnership with Centre National d’Études Spatiales. These instruments are the first ever spaceborne magnetometers to use a common sensor to simultaneously deliver 1 Hz independent absolute scalar and vector readings of the magnetic field. Since launch, these ASMs provided very high-accuracy scalar field data, as nominally required for the mission, together with experimental vector field data. Here we compare geomagnetic field models built from such ASM-only data with models built from the mission’s nominal 1 Hz data, combining ASM scalar data with independent fluxgate magnetometer vector data. The high level of agreement between these models demonstrates the potential of the ASM’s vector mode for data quality control and as a stand-alone magnetometer and illustrates the way the evolution of key field features can easily be monitored from space with such absolute vector magnetometers

Keywords: Space magnetometry; SWARM

Domains: Geophysics [physics.geo-ph]

Gauthier Hulot, Pierre Vigneron, Jean-Michel Léger, Isabelle Fratter, Nils Olsen, et al.. Swarm’s absolutemagnetometer experimental vectormode, an innovative capability for space magnetometry. Geophysical Research Letters, 2015, ⟨10.1002/2014GL062700⟩. ⟨insu-01408629⟩