Magnetic Field
Visualize Earth's geomagnetic field — field-line overlays on the globe, per-satellite field vectors, and time-series components — using IGRF with an optional Tsyganenko-89 external field.
Space Mission Designer can evaluate and visualize Earth’s geomagnetic field along satellite orbits and across the globe — useful for magnetometer-based attitude determination, magnetic torquer sizing, and space-environment analysis.
Magnetic field features are Earth-only — Earth’s field models don’t apply to Moon satellites.
Field models
| Model | Role |
|---|---|
| IGRF-14 | The internal (main) field, always active. Coefficients for the epoch are bundled with the computation service. |
| Tsyganenko-89 (T89) | Optional external field driven by solar wind and geomagnetic activity. Enabled per scenario via the Solar Wind setting. |
Enabling the solar wind
To add the Tsyganenko-89 external field to all magnetic field visualizations:
- Open Scenario Settings — the settings icon next to the Scenario heading in the sidebar.
- Turn on the Solar Wind switch.
- Set the Kp Index slider (0–6) to the geomagnetic activity level you want to model (0 = quiet, 6 = strong storm; T89 does not resolve Kp above 6).
- Click Save.
With Solar Wind off (the default), every visualization uses IGRF only. The setting is stored per scenario and drives the globe overlay, the satellite field vector, and the time-series plots — plots flag a refresh when it changes.
Magnetic field lines overlay
The globe top toolbar has a Magnetic Field Lines toggle that traces a shell of geomagnetic field lines through the magnetosphere at the current scenario epoch. Lines are seeded on McIlwain L-shells and rendered as 3D polylines in the Earth-fixed (GEO) frame, updating with the scenario clock. The toggle state is remembered per scenario.
Satellite magnetic field vector
Each Earth satellite’s more options menu (...) has a Magnetic Field toggle that draws the local magnetic field direction as an arrow on the satellite in the 3D model viewer — the same overlay style used for the Sun vector — so you can see the field orientation relative to the body axes.
Time-series plots
The floating time-series plots expose a Magnetic Field source per satellite, in nanotesla (nT):
| Series | Frame |
|---|---|
| |B| | Total field magnitude |
| B x / B y / B z | ITRF (Earth-fixed geographic) |
| B x / B y / B z | GCRS (inertial) |
| B x / B y / B z | LVLH (z = nadir, x ≈ along-velocity) |
| B x / B y / B z | Body frame (via the satellite’s base LVLH attitude) |
Field data is fetched lazily the first time a magnetic series is added and honors the scenario’s Solar Wind / Kp settings.
Space environment annotation
The model viewer’s annotation picker includes a Space Environment group with a Magnetic Field |B| metric, which displays the interpolated field magnitude (nT) at the current simulation time next to the satellite.
Limitations
- Earth satellites only.
- The Body-frame components use the satellite’s base LVLH attitude, not target-pointing slews.
- T89 external field supports Kp indices up to 6.
Next steps
- Satellites — propagate the orbits the field is evaluated along
- Model — the 3D viewer where the field vector and annotations appear