Variability of Ionospheric Plasma: Results from the ESA Swarm Mission

Swarm is the first European Space Agency (ESA) constellation mission for Earth Observation. Three identical Swarm satellites were launched into near-polar orbits on 22 November 2013. Each satellite hosts a range of instruments, including a Langmuir probe, GPS receivers, and magnetometers, from which...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Space science reviews 2022-09, Vol.218 (6), Article 52
Main Authors: Wood, Alan G., Alfonsi, Lucilla, Clausen, Lasse B. N., Jin, Yaqi, Spogli, Luca, Urbář, Jaroslav, Rawlings, James T., Whittaker, Ian C., Dorrian, Gareth D., Høeg, Per, Kotova, Daria, Cesaroni, Claudio, Cicone, Antonio, Miedzik, Jan, Gierlach, Ewa, Kochańska, Paula, Wojtkiewicz, Pawel, Shahtahmassebi, Golnaz, Miloch, Wojciech J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aerospace Technology and Astronautics
Astrophysics and Astroparticles
Calibration
Earthnet
Electric fields
Global positioning systems
GPS
Ionosphere
Ionospheric plasma
Magnetic fields
Magnetometers
Orbits
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Planetology
Plasma
Polar orbits
Satellite constellations
Satellite observation
Satellites
Space Exploration and Astronautics
Space Sciences (including Extraterrestrial Physics
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Summary:Swarm is the first European Space Agency (ESA) constellation mission for Earth Observation. Three identical Swarm satellites were launched into near-polar orbits on 22 November 2013. Each satellite hosts a range of instruments, including a Langmuir probe, GPS receivers, and magnetometers, from which the ionospheric plasma can be sampled and current systems inferred. In March 2018, the CASSIOPE/e-POP mission was formally integrated into the Swarm mission through ESA’s Earthnet Third Party Mission Programme. Collectively the instruments on the Swarm satellites enable detailed studies of ionospheric plasma, together with the variability of this plasma in space and in time. This allows the driving processes to be determined and understood. The purpose of this paper is to review ionospheric results from the first seven years of the Swarm mission and to discuss scientific challenges for future work in this field.
ISSN:0038-6308
1572-9672
DOI:10.1007/s11214-022-00916-0