Fluxgate magnetometer offset vector determination by the 3D mirror mode method

Abstract

Fluxgate magnetometers on-board spacecraft need to be regularly calibrated in flight. In low fields, the most important calibration parameters are the three offset vector components, which represent the magnetometer measurements in vanishing ambient magnetic fields. In case of three-axis stabilized spacecraft, a few methods exist to determine offsets: (i) by analysis of Alfvénic fluctuations present in the pristine interplanetary magnetic field, (ii) by rolling the spacecraft around at least two axes, (iii) by cross-calibration against measurements from electron drift instruments or absolute magnetometers, and (iv) by taking measurements in regions of well-known magnetic fields, e.g. cometary diamagnetic cavities. In this paper, we introduce a fifth option, the 3-dimensional (3D) mirror mode method, by which 3D offset vectors can be determined using magnetic field measurements of highly compressional waves, e.g. mirror modes in the Earth’s magnetosheath. We test the method by applying it to magnetic field data measured by the following: the Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms-C spacecraft in the terrestrial magnetosheath, the Cassini spacecraft in the Jovian magnetosheath and the Rosetta spacecraft in the vicinity of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The tests reveal that the achievable offset accuracies depend on the ambient magnetic field strength (lower strength meaning higher accuracy), on the length of the underlying data interval (more data meaning higher accuracy) and on the stability of the offset that is to be determined.