- 1Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, USA (haje.korth@jhuapl.edu)
- 2Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
- 3Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- 4Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- 5Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
- 6Institute for Geophysics and Extraterrestrial Physics, Technical University of Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany
On 14 October 2024, NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft was successfully launched from Kennedy Space Center with the goal to explore Jupiter’s moon Europa to investigate its habitability. A key investigation to achieve this goal is the characterization of the moon’s ice shell and global subsurface ocean using induced magnetic fields observed by the Europa Clipper Magnetometer. The Europa Clipper Magnetometer (ECM) consists of three three-axis fluxgate magnetometers mounted in gradiometer configuration on an 8.5 m-long, coilable boom. With the instrument checked out and all three sensors sampling the magnetic field at 16 vector samples per second, the magnetometer boom was deployed on 5 November 2024. The acquired data demonstrate that the boom deployed successfully to its full length. In addition, the observations obtained during the boom extension provide the first insight into the spacecraft magnetic field post launch and represent the only measurements of a quasi-radial profile of these contamination fields. As such, they are critical for the validation of a detailed, multi-pole magnetic model of the spacecraft, which was established pre-launch during the hardware integration and test phase of the mission. Initial results show that the observations compare favorably with the magnetic model consisting of 240 individual offset dipoles and that the magnetic cleanliness requirement to limit the spacecraft magnetic field at the outboard sensor to less than one nanotesla is met. Finally, corrected for the spacecraft field, the ECM observations provide the spacecraft’s first observations of the interplanetary magnetic field enroute to Mars, where Europa Clipper will execute a gravity assist maneuver. In this presentation, we report the first magnetic field measurements by the Europa Clipper Magnetometer, assessment of the spacecraft magnetic field, comparison with the spacecraft magnetic model, and ultimately the first observations of the magnetic field in the solar wind by Europa Clipper.
How to cite: Korth, H., Cochrane, C., Joy, S., Bouchard, M., Contreras, J., Biersteker, J., Blacksberg, J., Dang, K., Dawson, O., Jia, X., Khurana, K., Kivelson, M., Narvaez, P., Perley, M., Pierce, D., Raymond, C., Richter, I., Sherman, S., Strangeway, R., and Weiss, B.: First Observations by the Europa Clipper Magnetometer and Assessment of the Spacecraft Magnetic Field, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-4366, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-4366, 2025.
