Magnetic-probe diagnostics for railgun plasma armatures

The author assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the various magnetic-probe techniques currently in use and provides recommendations for future improvements in magnetic probe diagnostics for plasma-armature railguns. Analytic approximations for the dependence of the probe signal on probe location and railgun geometry are presented. Rail current and armature current probes are compared and contrasted with respect to resolution and accuracy. Further improvements in measurement accuracy are predicted for close-spaced magnetic-probe arrays