The Plasma Instrument for Magnetic Sounding (PIMS): Measuring the Plasma Influence on Magnetic Induction on the Europa Clipper mission

Characterizing Europa’s subsurface ocean is critical to assessing Europa’s habitability. Measurements of the magnetic field induced in the conducting Europan ocean in response to Jupiter’s magnetosphere is a proven technique that has successfully demonstrated the existence of subsurface oceans at Io (magma), Europa, and Callisto. In the case of Europa, the dynamic, magnetized plasma flow in the Jovian magnetosphere causes strong magnetic perturbations comparable to those of the induced field strength. Thus, accurate characterization of the ocean by magnetic sounding requires an accurate characterization of the plasma properties. The Plasma Instrument for Magnetic Sounding (PIMS) will launch on the Europa Clipper mission in October 2024 onboard a Falcon Heavy rocket and will measure the plasma properties in Jupiter’s magnetosphere and in Europa’s tenuous atmosphere. PIMS measurements will advance our understanding of the Jovian environment near Europa’s orbit and the interaction of Europa’s atmosphere and surface with Jupiter’s plasma and magnetic field. These scientific advances will, in turn, improve modeling efforts that will ultimately enable a highly accurate separation of the magnetic field due to induction in Europa’s interior from the highly variable magnetic perturbations due to the plasma interactions exterior to Europa. Thus, PIMS will enable the full potential of the induction technique in probing Europa’s interior to be realized, and will help constrain the average thickness of the ice shell and average thickness and salinity of the ocean, as well as characterize the composition and sources of the plasma and volatiles. In this presentation we will overview the PIMS instrument and its final calibration before it was integrated onto the spacecraft.