In-orbit results of the Coupled Dark State Magnetometer aboard the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite

Abstract

The China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES) was launched in February 2018 into a polar, sun-synchronous, low Earth orbit. It provides the first demonstration of the Coupled Dark State Magnetometer (CDSM) measurement principle in space. The CDSM is an optical scalar magnetometer based on the coherent population trapping (CPT) effect and measures the scalar field with the lowest absolute error aboard CSES. Therefore, it serves as the reference instrument for the measurements done by the fluxgate sensors within the High Precision Magnetometer instrument package. In this paper several correction steps are discussed in order to improve the accuracy of the CDSM data. This includes the extraction of valid 1 Hz data, the application of the sensor heading characteristic, the handling of discontinuities, which occur when switching between the CPT resonance superpositions, and the removal of fluxgate and satellite interferences. The in-orbit performance is compared to the Absolute Scalar Magnetometer aboard the Swarm satellite Bravo via the CHAOS magnetic field model. Additionally, an uncertainty of the magnetic field measurement is derived from unexpected parametric changes of the CDSM in orbit in combination with performance measurements on the ground.