Fluxgate Magnetic Field Instrument for Seven Small Plasma Observatory Spacecraft

The fluxgate magnetic field instrument (MAG) onboard seven small Plasma Observatory (PO) spacecraft is a collaborative effort between the Space Research Institute in Graz (AT), the Technical University of Braunschweig (DE) and the Imperial College London (UK). MAG is a dual-sensor fluxgate magnetometer that measures the vector of the magnetic field in space. The science objective of MAG is to provide the magnetic field measurements that are crucial for analyzing plasma processes in six key science regions of Plasma Observatory: foreshock, bowshock, magnetosheath, magnetopause, transition region and tail current sheet. MAG measures the background magnetic field in the near-Earth space in the range ± 10,000 nT with frequencies up to 256 Hz, a noise floor of less than 10 pT/√Hz at 1Hz and an error of less than ±0.5 nT. The targeted value range in terms of static and variational field for PMO is in the order of 100 nT. The maximum sampling frequency of 256 Hz allows for a sufficient overlap with concurrent Search Coil Magnetometer measurements. The poster gives an overview over the magnetometer design as well as its scientific goals.