Plans for a rapid downlink of magnetic field data from Swarm

The set of space Environmental Data Records (EDR) assigned to NPOESS includes the Geomagnetic Field which is intended to support the needs of the terrestrial magnetic field modeling community as well as other users of real-time magnetic field data. However the current architecture for the NPOESS Space Environmental Sensor Suite (SESS) does not include any capability for providing the requisite Geomagnetic Field EDR. In order to address this shortfall in NPOESS capability the program office is planning to enter into discussions with the European Space Agency for obtaining magnetic field data from the Swarm mission currently scheduled for launch in 2009. The objective of Swarm is to provide the most detailed survey to-date of the geomagnetic field. Swarm is a constellation of three identical polar satellites in low-earth orbit in altitudes between 400 km and 550 km. Each Swarm satellite includes a new-generation magnetometer that will measure the strength and direction of the local magnetic field to an accuracy of less than 1 nanotesla. GPS receivers, accelerometers and electric field instruments will provide supplementary information on the state of the ionosphere. The initial concept of operations was to use a single ground site to downlink the Swarm data with a resulting data latency of up to 3 days. However in order to address the real-time needs of the SESS community for Swarm data NOAA is investigating the possibility of providing a more responsive downlink using the NPOESS ground-station infrastructure. This talk will provide an overview of the Swarm mission and discuss the potential uses of real-time magnetic field data.