The THEMIS Fluxgate Magnetometer (FGM) measures the background magnetic field and its low frequency fluctuations (up to 64 Hz) in the near-Earth space. The FGM is capable of detecting variations of the magnetic field with amplitudes of 0.01 nT, and it is particularly designed to study abrupt reconfigurations of the Earth's magnetosphere during the substorm onset phase. The FGM uses an updated technology developed in Germany that digitizes the sensor signals directly and replaces the analog hardware by software. Use of the digital fluxgate technology results in lower mass of the instrument and improved robustness. The present paper gives a description of the FGM experimental design and the data products, the extended calibration tests made before spacecraft launch, and first results of its magnetic field measurements during the first half year in space. It is also shown that the FGM on board the five THEMIS spacecraft well meets and even exceeds the required conditions of the stability and the resolution for the magnetometer.

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The feasibility and first results of a near sensor digitalization of fluxgate signals (digital fluxgate magnetometer) are presented. Applying the usual magnetometer electronics we have substituted the analogue section by a digital processing unit (ow). The 2f , signal is digitized at its second harmonic and mean values are online phase-sensitively calculated. Based on this development we present a completely redesigned magnetometer experiment for applications on planetary surfaces. Sensor and electronics including serial interface have to be in one housing, its weight is less than 150 g and the number of electrical connections is limited to four (power lines + serial link). Applications for the digital magnetometer on Earth are also discussed.

The South Korean meteorological and environmental satellite GEO-KOMPSAT-2A (GK-2A) was launched into geostationary orbit at $128.2^{\circ}$ 128.2 ∘ East on 4 December 2018. The space weather observation aboard GK-2A is performed by the Korea Space Environment Monitor. It consists of three particle detectors, a charging monitor and a four-sensor Service Oriented Spacecraft Magnetometer (SOSMAG). The magnetometer design aims for avoiding strict magnetic cleanliness requirements for the hosting spacecraft and an automated on-board correction of the dynamic stray fields which are generated by the spacecraft. This is achieved through the use of two science grade fluxgate sensors on an approximately one meter long boom and two additional magnetoresistance sensors mounted within the spacecraft body. This paper describes the instrument design, discusses the ground calibration methods and results, presents the post-launch correction and calibration achievements based on the data which were acquired during the first year in orbit and demonstrates the in-flight performance of SOSMAG with two science cases. The dynamic stray fields from the GK-2A spacecraft, which was built without specific magnetic cleanliness considerations, are reduced up to a maximum factor of 35. The magnitude of the largest remnant field from an active spacecraft disturber is 2.0 nT. Due to a daily shadowing of the SOSMAG boom, sensor intrinsic offset oscillations with a periodicity up to 60 minutes and peak-to-peak values up to 5 nT remain in the corrected data product. The comparison of the cleaned SOSMAG data with the Tsyganenko 2004 magnetic field model and the magnetic field data from the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission demonstrates that the offset error is less than the required 5 nT for all three components and that the drift of the offsets over 10 months is less than 7 nT. Future work will include a further reduction of the remaining artefacts in the final data product with the focus on lessening the temperature driven sensor oscillations with an epoch based identification and correction.

The Mobile Asteroid Scout (MASCOT) is a small lander on board the Hayabusa2 mission of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to the asteroid 162173 Ryugu. Among the instruments on MASCOT is a fluxgate magnetometer, the MASCOT Magnetometer (MasMag). The magnetometer is a lightweight (∼ 280 g) and low power (∼ 0.5 W) triaxial fluxgate magnetometer. Magnetic field measurements during the landing period and during the surface operational phase shall provide information about any intrinsic magnetic field of the asteroid and its remanent magnetization. This could provide important constraints on planet formation and the thermal and aqueous evolution of primitive asteroids.

Observations of the magnetization state of asteroids indicate diverse properties. Values between 1.9 × 10 −6 Am 2 /kg (Eros) and 10 −2 Am 2 /kg (Braille) have been reported. A more detailed understanding of asteroidal magnetic properties allows far-reaching conclusions of the magnetization mechanism as well as the strength of the magnetic field of the solar system regions the asteroid formed in. The Hayabusa2 mission with its lander Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout is equipped with a magnetometer experiment, MasMag. MasMag is a state-of-the-art three-axis fluxgate magnetometer, successfully operated also on Philae, the Rosetta mission lander. MasMag has enabled, after Eros for the second time ever, to determine the magnetic field of an asteroid during descent and on-surface operations. The new observations show that Ryugu, a low-albedo C-type asteroid, has no detectable global magnetization, and any local magnetization is either small (< 10 −6 Am 2 /kg) or on very small (subcentimeter) scales. This implies, for example, that energetic solar wind particles could reach and alter the surface unimpeded by strong asteroidal magnetic fields, such as minimagnetospheres in case of the Moon.Plain Language Summary Magnetic measurements in space near and on solar system bodies such as asteroids can provide important information about their formation history and their material properties. Hayabusa2, a Japanese mission, visited asteroid Ryugu, a type of asteroid (carbon rich) not visited before. Ryugu is a rubble pile, that is, an agglomeration of rocks and boulders. It is not expected to have any global magnetic field, but it can be magnetized on smaller scales (boulders or pebbles). Hayabusa2 carried therefore a small lander called Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout equipped also with an instrument for magnetic field measurement (magnetometer). In this study, we present observations from the magnetometer that were collected during Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout's descent and landing on the surface of Ryugu. The magnetic measurements show that Ryugu is not magnetized on boulder (greater than centimeter) scales. This gives us indication on its origin and evolution. In particular, it shows that Ryugu and the bodies it was created from did not possess any magnetic field generation mechanism and that they were not created in an environment with strong background magnetic field. The results are important inputs for theories about the solar system evolution that work with magnetic field as one of the drivers for dust accretion and planetary formation.

Abstract. In situ measurement of the magnetic field using spaceborne instruments requires a magnetically clean platform and/or a very long boom for accommodating magnetometer sensors at a large distance from the spacecraft body. This significantly drives up the costs and the time required to build a spacecraft. Here we present an alternative sensor configuration and a technique allowing for removal of the spacecraft-generated AC disturbances from the magnetic field measurements, thus lessening the need for a magnetic cleanliness programme and allowing for shorter boom length. The final expression of the corrected data takes the form of a linear combination of the measurements from all sensors, allowing for simple onboard software implementation. The proposed technique is applied to the Service Oriented Spacecraft Magnetometer (SOSMAG) on board the Korean geostationary satellite GeoKompsat-2A (GK2A). In contrast to other missions where multi-sensor measurements were used to clean the data on the ground, the SOSMAG instrument performs the cleaning on board and transmits the corrected data in real time, as needed by space weather applications. The successful elimination of the AC disturbances originating from several sources validates the proposed cleaning technique.

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