Low Field Helium Magnetometer for Space Applications

Slocum, Robert E.; Reilly, Francis N.

doi:10.1109/tns.1963.4323257

Cited by 34 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…As reported by Slocum (2002), the new design includes vector and scalar operation in the same instrument that can achieve accuracies of better than 1 part in 10,000 (better than ∼1 nT in the Earth's magnetic field) and a sensitivity of ∼0.2 pT/Hz 1/2 . A parallel development of a new generation of helium magnetometers has been announced (Guttin et al 1994;Gravrand et al 2001) but no planetary mission has been found as yet for these instruments.…”

Section: The Vector and Scalar Helium Magnetometersmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…A few such magnetometers have been used in space in conjunction with vector magnetometers to provide high accuracy measurements of the Earth's magnetic field (Primdahl 1998). The helium magnetometer described below can in fact also be configured to operate in a scalar mode that provides a high accuracy measurement of the magnitude of the magnetic field (Slocum and Reilly 1963;Slocum et al 1971). A helium magnetometer operating in the scalar mode was included in the Cassini Saturn Orbiter magnetometer .…”

Section: The Vector and Scalar Helium Magnetometersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Under these conditions, the signal in the IR detector contains a sinusoidal component at the sweep frequency whose magnitude is proportional to the ambient field strength and whose phase relative to the sweep waveform depends on the direction of the ambient field in the sweep plane (see, e.g. Reilly 1963 andSmith et al 1975a). The pT -level performance of an early prototype helium magnetometer is illustrated in Fig.…”

Section: The Vector and Scalar Helium Magnetometersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, It was not possible to exclude the possibility of a weak intrinsic magnetic field, but the close approach allowed to establish a much lowered upper limit, less than a fraction 1/400 of that of the Earth, than was possible with Mariner 2. The magnetometer on Mariner 5 was identical to the one flown on Mariner 4; it was the first time a quantum effect instrument, a Vector Helium Magnetometer was embarked on a planetary mission (Slocum and Reilly 1963;Connor 1968). This instrument is described in more detail in Sect.…”

Section: Venusmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Planetary Magnetic Field Measurements: Missions and Instrumentation

Balogh

2010

Space Sci Rev

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The nature and diversity of the magnetic properties of the planets have been investigated by a large number of space missions over the past 50 years. It is clear that without the magnetic field measurements that have been carried out in the vicinity of all the planets, the state of their interior and their evolution since their formation would not be understood even though questions remain about how the different planetary dynamos (in six of the eight planets) work. This paper describes the motivation for making magnetic field measurements, the instrumentation that has been used and many of the missions that carried out the pioneering observations. Emphasis is given to the historically important early missions even if the results from these have been in some cases bettered by later missions.Keywords Planetary magnetism · Planetary space missions · Space magnetometers Motivation for Measuring the Magnetic Field of Planets and SatellitesThe presence or absence of a planetary scale magnetic field places a strong constraint of the state of a planet's interior. The nature of the field (dipolar, multipolar, crustal, induced or, in general, the combination of all such terms in different proportions) provides further indication of the details of the thermal evolution and current state and has been used extensively in constraining models of planetary structure. If a planet's magnetic field is dominated by dipolar and low-order multipolar terms, the presumed existence of a magnetohydrodynamic dynamo in the planet's interior is an additional, important factor in its internal dynamics.For planets in the solar system, the interaction of the planetary obstacle with the allpervasive solar wind critically influences the magnetic environment of planets. The interaction depends strongly on the nature of the magnetism of the planetary body, as well as on

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Section: The Vector and Scalar Helium Magnetometersmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: The Vector and Scalar Helium Magnetometersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Vector and Scalar Helium Magnetometersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Venusmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Planetary Magnetic Field Measurements: Missions and Instrumentation

Balogh

2010

Space Sci Rev

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“…The original instrumentation development has been discussed by Slocum and Reilly (1963). A brief summary of its operating principles shall be given here, depending heavily upon the description of the optical pumping and optical transmission properties of the alkali vapor absorption cell given in Section 2.4.…”

Section: Helium Vapor Magnetometermentioning

confidence: 99%