A magnetometer system comprising: a plurality of magnetometers , at least a portion of the plurality of magnetometers are arranged in an array , each of the plurality of magnetometers 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 . a plurality of magnetometers , at least a portion of the plurality of magnetometers are arranged in an array , each of the plurality of magnetometers 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 . <EOS>