BackForwardInstrument:  MSC (Tracers) 

Instrument details
Acronym MSC (Tracers)
Full name Magnetic Search Coil
Purpose MSC measures high-frequency time varying magnetic fields (from about 1 Hz to 1,000 Hz).
Short description

There is one MSC instrument for each spacecraft, each consisting of three identical search coil sensors mounted in a tri-axial configuration with their corresponding electronics. Two of the sensors are oriented parallel to the two electric dipole antennas and the third parallel to the spacecraft spin axis.
Background

The TRACERS MSC design has direct heritage from search coils flown on ISEE-3, Wind, Juno, Van Allen Probes space missions and the VIPER sounding rocket.
Scanning Technique
Resolution Sensitivity - 10-6 nT2/Hz @ 10 Hz - 10-8 nT2/Hz @ 100 Hz
Coverage / Cycle Frequency range 1 Hz to 1000 Hz.
Mass Power Data Rate

 

Providing Agency NASA
Instrument Maturity Flown on an R&D satellite
Utilization Period: 2025 to 2026
Last update: 2025-07-28
Detailed characteristics
Satellites this instrument is flying on

Note: a red tag indicates satellites no longer operational, a green tag indicates operational satellites, a blue tag indicates future satellites

Instrument classification
  • Solar and space environment monitors
  • Field or radiowave sensor
WIGOS Subcomponents
  • Subcomponent 1
  • In-situ plasma probes, and energetic particle spectrometers and magnetometers at GEO and LEO, and magnetic field at GEO
  • Magnetometer at LEO
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives
  • Geomagnetic field
Evaluation of Measurements

The following list indicates which measurements can typically be retrieved from this category of instrument. To see a full Gap Analysis by Variable, click on the respective variable.

Note: table can be sorted by clicking on the column headers
Note: * Primary mission objective.