The GOES-R Spacecraft Mission Series Magnetometer

Since their inception in the 1970s, the GOES satellites have monitored the sources of space weather on the sun and the effects of space weather at Earth. These observations are important for providing forecasts, warnings and alerts to many customers, including satellite operators, the power utilities, and NASA’s human activities in space. This presentation reviews the capabilities of the GOES-R magnetometer (MAG) and describes some of the MAG Level 2+ data products that will be an integral part of NOAA space weather operations in the GOES-R era. The GOES-R MAG provides observations of the geomagnetic field, which can be the first indication that significant space weather has reached Earth. In addition, the magnetic field observations are used to identify and forecast the severity of the space weather activity. The GOES-R MAG requirements are similar to those for previously flown instruments, measuring three components of the geomagnetic field with a resolution of least 0.016 nT, but with an improved sampling rate of 10 Hz. The MAG data are low-pass filtered with 2.5 Hz cutoff compared to the 0.5 Hz cutoff of previous GOES magnetometers. We will also describe the post launch calibration/validation work that will be undertaken for the MAG.