In flight performance of the MAGIC magnetoresistive magnetometer on the RadCube CubeSat
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
In studying space physics, planetary science, and space weather, space-based in situ measurements of the magnetic field are fundamental to understanding underlying physical processes, as well as providing context for other observations. Whilst in many cases instrument design is not severely constrained by the available resource envelope, there are many applications, particularly when using new generations of spacecraft platforms such as CubeSats, that require very low resource sensors. In this context we review the design, development, construction, and flight of the highly miniaturised MAGIC (MAGnetometer from Imperial College) instrument on the RadCube Technology Demonstration CubeSat. MAGIC consists of a boom-mounted (outboard) Anisotropic Magneto-Resistive (AMR) vector sensor connected by harness to a single electronics card inside RadCube. A second inboard AMR vector sensor is mounted on the electronics card. RadCube launched on 17 August 2021 to a sun-synchronous low-Earth polar orbit, with the main mission lasting until April 2022. Routine operations were subsequently extended to the end of 2022, with further special operations in 2023 and 2024 before re-entry on 20 August 2024. Here we review RadCube observations made over more than two years in orbit. Key results from MAGIC on RadCube include meeting ESA space weather magnetic field measurement requirements with both the outboard and inboard sensor, as well as detection of field aligned current signatures at high latitude.
Date Issued
2025-04-29
Date Acceptance
2025-04-29
Citation
Space Science Reviews, 2025, 221
ISSN
0038-6308
Publisher
Springer
Journal / Book Title
Space Science Reviews
Volume
221
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2025 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
10.1007/s11214-025-01170-w
Subjects
RadCube
Magnetometer
Anisotropic magnetoresistive sensing
CubeSat
Space weather
Geomagnetic observations
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
45
Date Publish Online
2025-05-14