Identification and Removal of Reaction Wheel Interference From In-Situ Magnetic Field Data Using Multichannel Singular Spectrum Analysis

In situ magnetic field measurements are critical to our understanding of a variety of space physics phenomena including field-aligned currents and plasma waves. Unfortunately, high-fidelity magnetometer measurements are often degraded by stray magnetic fields from the host spacecraft, its subsystems, and other instruments. One dominant source of magnetic interference on many missions are reaction wheels-spinning platters of varying rates used to control spacecraft attitude. This manuscript presents a novel approach to the mitigation of reaction wheel interference on magnetometer measurements aboard spacecraft where multiple magnetometer sensors are deployed. Specifically, multichannel singular spectrum analysis is employed to decompose multiple time series simultaneously. A technique for automatic component selection is proposed that classifies the decomposed signals into common geophysical signals and disparate locally generated signals enabling the robust estimation and removal of the local interference without requiring any assumptions about its characteristics or source. The utility of this proposed method is demonstrated empirically using in situ data from the CASSIOPE/Swarm-Echo mission, and a data interval with near-constant background field was shown to have its local reaction wheel interference reduced from 1.90 nT RMS, for the uncorrected outboard sensor, to 0.21 nT RMS (an 89.0% reduction). This technique can be generalized to arrays of more than two sensors, and should apply to additional types of magnetic interference.

Automated summary

This manuscript presents a novel approach to mitigating the interference of reaction wheels on magnetometer measurements in spacecraft. It employs multichannel singular spectrum analysis to decompose multiple time series simultaneously, allowing for the robust estimation and removal of interference signals. The proposed method was successfully demonstrated using data from the CASSIOPE/Swarm-Echo mission, resulting in a significant reduction in interference.