ACE/MAG Project

The Bartol Research Institute (BRI) of the University of Delaware, in collaboration with the Laboratory for Extraterrestrial Physics (LEP) at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), built and delivered a magnetometer instrument for the ACE mission. This instrument was flown on the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE), which was launched on a Delta rocket from the Kennedy Space Center on August 25, 1997.
[See the Launch movie 1.7MB]

Data processing for the MAG instrument moved to The University of New Hampshire when C.W. Smith moved there in July 2003.

Be sure to visit the new ACE/MAG interactive photo library!

Magnetometer Instrument

The Magnetometer instrument consists of one electronics box mounted on the spacecraft top deck and of two sensors mounted at the end of two boom.

ACE Spacecraft

The spacecraft was built at the Applied Physics Laboratory of the John Hopkins University in Laurel, MD. The photo at right shows how the magnetometer sensors are mounted at the end of of two secondary booms hinged at the end of two of the four solar panels.

The ACE Spacecraft and the JHU/APL Team that built it
Blowup diagram of the ACE spacecraft including internal fuel tanks and instrument locations
How does the MAG instrument fit in with the other ACE instruments?

Launch and Mission

Planned trajectory for ACE - From Earth to L1
Composite picture from the ACE launch (232K).
Images, Movies and Sound Bites - Courtesy of Florida Today Space Online - 8/25/97
NASA/KSC Photograph Archives
Mission Status Reports - Ending January 30, 1998.

Science

First Results - The ACE/MAG boom deployment.
ACE Science Center - OnLine Data and Documentation
ACE/MAG Browse Data - From the ACE Science Center.
ACE Real-Time Solar-Wind data made available by NOAA within minutes of the spacecraft observation.
ACE News - Latest science report and access to archives.
ACE/MAG Publications including talks and K-12 outreach efforts.
A list of ACE disturbances and transients as observed by the ACE/MAG and SWEPAM instruments, including shocks, magnetic clouds, counterstreaming electron events (either CMEs or distant terrestrial foreshock periods), and large magnetic holes.
A list of solar wind characteristics including means, variances, and spectral properties computed for hourly samples since the start of the ACE mission. This is an informal and evolving data set made available to the community for both magnetosphere and solar wind studies.

The ACE/MAG Team

Bartol Research Institute (BRI)

Norman F. Ness, Experiment Manager (nfness@bartol.udel.edu)
Jacques L'Heureux, Instrument Manager

University of New Hampshire ( UNH EOS Institute)

Charles W. Smith, Data Manager (Charles.Smith@unh.edu)

Goddard Space Flight Center ( GSFC)

Len Burlaga, Co-Investigator ( u2leb@lepvax.gsfc.nasa.gov)
Mario Acuña, Instrument Scientist ( macuna@gsfcmail.nasa.gov)