A New Method of Fluxgate Magnetometer Offset Vector Determination in the Solar Wind Using Any Magnetic Field Variations

Abstract

Abstract In-depth study of dynamic processes in the astrophysical plasma environment relies on high-precision measurement of the magnetic field. Fluxgate magnetometers (FGMs) are commonly used on spacecraft to measure the magnetic field. However, their zero offsets vary slowly with time, and therefore need regularly in-flight calibration. Traditional methods of calculating the zero offset are based on properties of Alfvén waves, mirror mode structures, or current sheets. Here, we develop a new method of calculating the zero offset using any interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) variations. We create an offset cube according to the possible range of the IMF strength. The average values of B L for the IMF variation events approximately obey the normal distribution if there are enough events, where B L is the magnetic field in the maximum variance direction. Any constant vector added to the natural magnetic field data of the events will make the standard deviation of the normal distribution larger. Thereby, the point is determined to be the zero offset so that the corresponding standard deviation at this point is the minimum in the offset cube. Our test results show that this method has a 95.5% probability of obtaining the zero offset with an error of less than 0.3 nT when 10–21 hr of data are used. Our method provides an option for the in-flight calibration of the spaceborne FGM in the solar wind when there are not enough Alfvén waves, mirror modes, or current sheets.