BackForwardInstrument:  SEM/SSM 

Instrument details
Acronym SEM/SSM
Full name SESS / Special Sensor Magnetometer
Purpose Measurement of geomagnetic fluctuations associated with solar geophysical phenomena (i.e., ionospheric currents flowing at high latitudes)
Short description Triaxial fluxgate magnetometer. Dynamic range: ±4 to ±65536 nT, resolution ±2 nT @ maximum of dynamics
Background Part of the SEM (Space Environment Monitor) package
Scanning Technique In-situ measurement in a sunsynchronous orbit
Resolution N/A
Coverage / Cycle Sampling at 0.08 s intervals
Mass Power Data Rate

 

Providing Agency DoD
Instrument Maturity Flown on operational programme
Utilization Period: 1984 to 2017
Last update: 2022-07-25
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.
VariableRelevance for measuring this variableOperational limitationsExplanation
Geomagnetic field*3 - highNo specific limitation.Platform, vectorial, wide dynamics, coarse resolution
Ionospheric plasma density4 - fairNo specific limitation.Platform. Ionospheric plasma density
Electron Density4 - fairNo specific limitation.Platform. Electron density