UK Space Facilities Space Magnetometer Calibration Facility

Space Magnetometer Calibration Facility

The Space and Atmospheric Physics Group’s Space Magnetometer Lab comprises a team of scientists and engineers, together with the necessary support facilities, for the research and development of magneto-meters for flight on scientific spacecraft. The group has supplied magnetometers for numerous missions including Cluster, Cassini, Venus Express, Double Star, Ulysses, Bepi-Colombo, Solar Orbiter and JUICE. Most of the Group’s magnetometers are fluxgate designs, because of their lower power and mass, but some optically pumped designs such as the Vector Helium Magnetometer (VHM) shown below have been provided by US co-investigators and flown on Ulysses and Cassini. The JUICE scalar sensor will be provided by a co-investigator at the University of Graz.

The Lab’s ground calibration facilities for magnetometers are located at a magnetically-quiet site outside London in Staffordshire, belonging to a company specialising in magnetic sensors, Ultra Electronics Ltd, who also manufacture the fluxgate ring-cores used in the Group’s sensors

Capabilities

Helmholz calibration magnetometer