Mars Global Surveyor Magnetometer

The magnetometer and electron reflectometer instruments are measuring the magnetic properties of Mars. On Earth, a magnetic field surrounds the planet. The magnetism results from electric currents circulating in the molten iron churning slowly in the Earth's core. Mars does not presently have a global magnetic field but had one early in its life, similar to that of Earth. However, Mars does have very strong crustal magnetic fields, more than 30 times stronger than those of Earth. Magnetic fields are usually measured in units of "gamma", for our purposes we use the equivalent "nanoTesla" unit. The fluxgate magnetometers implemented for the Mars Global Surveyor are based on similar instruments developed for numerous previous missions Voyager, Magsat, International Solar Polar mission, Giotto, Active Magnetospheric Particle Tracer Explorers, etc.). The basic configuration consists of dual; wide-range, triaxial flux gate sensors mounted remote from the spacecraft's body. Assuming that this field is primarily dipolar in nature at the location of the magnetometer sensors, the ambient field can then be analytically determined by combining the outboard and inboard measurements.

磁力计和电子反射计仪器正在测量火星的磁性特征。在地球上，环绕行星的是磁场，这种磁力源于在地球核心中缓慢旋转的熔融铁中循环的电流。火星目前并没有全球性的磁场，但在其早期生命阶段曾拥有类似地球的全球磁场。然而，火星确实拥有非常强烈的地壳磁场，其强度超过地球的30倍。磁场通常以“伽马”为单位进行测量，针对本目的，我们使用等效的“纳特斯拉”单位。为火星全球勘测器实施的霍尔效应磁力计是基于为众多先前任务（如旅行者号、Magsat、国际太阳极地探测任务、乔托号、活跃磁层粒子追踪探测器等）开发的类似仪器。基本配置包括安装在航天器本体之外的、宽范围的、三轴霍尔效应传感器。假设在磁力计传感器的位置，该场主要是偶极性，则可以通过结合外侧和内侧测量值来分析性地确定环境场。