Swarm - the European Space Agency's constellation mission: Mapping Earth's external field

Abstract:

Launched on 22 November 2013, the three-satellite Swarm constellation is about halfway into its four-year nominal mission. Embarking identical, high accuracy and high spatial as well as temporal resolution instrumentation on all satellites, the mission has ambitious goals reaching from the deep Earth interior (the liquid outer core) all the way out to the solar-terrestrial interaction in the magnetosphere. One may safely state that the mission addresses a diverse range of science issues, and therefore acts as a true discoverer in many fields. Measurements of the magnetic field (magnitude and vector components), the electric field (through ion drift velocity, ion density, ion temperature, electron density, electron temperature and spacecraft potential), the gas density and horizontal winds as well as precise positioning are supported by a range of derived products for the magnetic field, geophysics, aeronomy and space physics communities. Indeed, Swarm is at the forefront of cross-cutting science issues that involve significant parts of the space and earth physics community. In recent data exploitation and science projects we have also seen a high number of coupling studies emerging.   This contribution details the status and achievements of the mission in the field of geospace research, which by far and large forms the largest user group of the mission. It furthermore discusses the calibration and validation results of the mission as well as outline the Agency’s further plans, beyond the currently foreseen nominal end of mission in spring 2018. The role of Swarm for space weather research will also be discussed.