A magnetometer system comprising: a plurality of magnetometers (14, 50, 102, 104, 106, 108), at least a portion of the plurality of magnetometers (14, 50, 102, 104, 106, 108) are arranged in an array (12, 100), each of the plurality of magnetometers (14, 50, 102, 104, 106, 108) comprising: a sensor cell comprising alkali metal vapor; a magnetic field generator system configured to generate a plurality of predetermined AC magnetic fields (B 1,..., B x) through the sensor cell; a laser system configured to provide an optical pump beam (OPT PMP) and an optical probe beam (OPT PRB) through the sensor cell in a pulsed manner to facilitate precession of the alkali metal vapor and to provide a detection beam (OPT DET) corresponding to the optical probe beam (OPT PRB) exiting the sensor cell, the detection beam (OPT DET) exhibiting an optical property corresponding to a modified precession of the alkali metal vapor based on the plurality of predetermined AC magnetic fields (B 1,..., B x) and an external magnetic field; a detection system configured to monitor the detection beam (OPT DET) to detect the modified precession of the alkali metal vapor to calculate a scalar component and to calculate a vector component of the external magnetic field based on the plurality of predetermined AC magnetic fields (B 1,..., B x); and a magnetic field tensor processor configured to calculate a magnetic field gradient based on the scalar and vector components of the external magnetic field calculated by each of the plurality of magnetometers (14, 50, 102, 104, 106, 108). a plurality of magnetometers (14, 50, 102, 104, 106, 108), at least a portion of the plurality of magnetometers (14, 50, 102, 104, 106, 108) are arranged in an array (12, 100), each of the plurality of magnetometers (14, 50, 102, 104, 106, 108) comprising: a sensor cell comprising alkali metal vapor; a magnetic field generator system configured to generate a plurality of predetermined AC magnetic fields (B 1,..., B x) through the sensor cell; a laser system configured to provide an optical pump beam (OPT PMP) and an optical probe beam (OPT PRB) through the sensor cell in a pulsed manner to facilitate precession of the alkali metal vapor and to provide a detection beam (OPT DET) corresponding to the optical probe beam (OPT PRB) exiting the sensor cell, the detection beam (OPT DET) exhibiting an optical property corresponding to a modified precession of the alkali metal vapor based on the plurality of predetermined AC magnetic fields (B 1,..., B x) and an external magnetic field; a detection system configured to monitor the detection beam (OPT DET) to detect the modified precession of the alkali metal vapor to calculate a scalar component and to calculate a vector component of the external magnetic field based on the plurality of predetermined AC magnetic fields (B 1,..., B x); and a sensor cell comprising alkali metal vapor; a magnetic field generator system configured to generate a plurality of predetermined AC magnetic fields (B 1,..., B x) through the sensor cell; a laser system configured to provide an optical pump beam (OPT PMP) and an optical probe beam (OPT PRB) through the sensor cell in a pulsed manner to facilitate precession of the alkali metal vapor and to provide a detection beam (OPT DET) corresponding to the optical probe beam (OPT PRB) exiting the sensor cell, the detection beam (OPT DET) exhibiting an optical property corresponding to a modified precession of the alkali metal vapor based on the plurality of predetermined AC magnetic fields (B 1,..., B x) and an external magnetic field; a detection system configured to monitor the detection beam (OPT DET) to detect the modified precession of the alkali metal vapor to calculate a scalar component and to calculate a vector component of the external magnetic field based on the plurality of predetermined AC magnetic fields (B 1,..., B x); and a magnetic field tensor processor configured to calculate a magnetic field gradient based on the scalar and vector components of the external magnetic field calculated by each of the plurality of magnetometers (14, 50, 102, 104, 106, 108).