The Search-Coil Magnetometer (SCM) of the Radio and Plasma Waves Investigation (RPWI) onboard the ESA JUICE mission

The JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE) mission is the first large-class (L1) mission of ESA Cosmic Vision. JUICE will be launched in April 2023 with an arrival at Jupiter in 2031 and at least four years making detailed observations of Jupiter’s magnetosphere and of three of its largest moons (Ganymede, Callisto and Europa). The Radio and Plasma Wave Investigation (RPWI) consortium will carry the most advanced set of electric and magnetic fields sensors ever flown in Jupiter’s magnetosphere, which will allow to characterize the radio emission and plasma wave environment of Jupiter and its icy moons. Here we present the scientific objectives and the technical features of the Search Coil Magnetometer (SCM) of RPWI. SCM will provide for the first time three-dimensional measurements of magnetic field fluctuations in the frequency range 0.1 Hz – 20 kHz within Jupiter’s magnetosphere. High sensitivity (~10 fT / √Hz at 1 kHz) will be assured by combining an optimized (20 cm long) magnetic transducer with a low-noise (4 nV / √Hz) ASIC pre-amplifier. Perturbations by the spacecraft are strongly reduced by accommodating SCM at about 10 m away from the spacecraft on the JUICE magnetometer boom. The combination of high sensitivity and high cleanliness of SCM measurements will allow unpreceded studies of electromagnetic fluctuations down to plasma kinetic scales, in particular in key regions such as the magnetopause, the auroral region and the magnetotail current sheet of Ganymede’s own magnetosphere which JUICE will orbit for many months. This will lead to important advances in understanding how fundamental plasma processes such as magnetic reconnection, turbulence and particle energization occur in Jupiter’s plasma environment.