A Merged Search‐Coil and Fluxgate Magnetometer Data Product for Parker Solar Probe FIELDS

T.A. Bowen (1) , S.D Bale (1) , J. W. Bonnell (1) , Thierry Dudok de Wit (2) , K Goetz (3) , K. Goodrich (1) , J. Gruesbeck (4) , P.R Harvey (1) , G. Jannet (2) , A. Koval (5) , R. J. Macdowall (4) , D.M. Malaspina (6) , Marc Pulupa (1) , C Revillet (2) , D. Sheppard , A. Szabo

1 UC Berkeley - University of California [Berkeley]
2 LPC2E - Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement et de l'Espace
3 UMN - University of Minnesota [Twin Cities]
4 GSFC - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
5 University of Maryland [Baltimore]
6 UCCS - University of Colorado [Colorado Springs]

NASA's Parker Solar Probe (PSP) mission is currently investigating the local plasma environment of the inner heliosphere (<0.25 R ⊙) using both in situ and remote sensing instrumentation. Connecting signatures of microphysical particle heating and acceleration processes to macroscale heliospheric structure requires sensitive measurements of electromagnetic fields over a large range of physical scales. The FIELDS instrument, which provides PSP with in situ measurements of electromagnetic fields of the inner heliosphere and corona, includes a set of three vector magnetometers: two fluxgate magnetometers (MAGs) and a single inductively coupled search-coil magnetometer (SCM). Together, the three FIELDS magnetometers enable measurements of the local magnetic field with a bandwidth ranging from DC to 1 MHz. This manuscript reports on the development of a merged data set combining SCM and MAG (SCaM) measurements, enabling a high fidelity data product with an optimal signal-to-noise ratio. On-ground characterization tests of complex instrumental responses and noise floors are discussed as well as application to the in-flight calibration of FIELDS data. The algorithm used on PSP/FIELDS to merge waveform observations from multiple sensors with optimal signal-to-noise characteristics is presented. In-flight analysis of calibrations and merging algorithm performance demonstrates a timing accuracy to well within the survey rate sample period of ∼340 μs.

Domains: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysic [astro-ph.IM]; Solar and Stellar Astrophysics [astro-ph.SR]

T.A. Bowen, S.D Bale, J. W. Bonnell, Thierry Dudok de Wit, K Goetz, et al.. A Merged Search‐Coil and Fluxgate Magnetometer Data Product for Parker Solar Probe FIELDS. Journal of Geophysical Research Space Physics, 2020, 125 (5), pp.e2020JA027813. ⟨10.1029/2020JA027813⟩. ⟨insu-02934870⟩