ESA's Magnetic Field Mission Swarm

Swarm is the fifth Earth Explorer mission in ESA's Living Planet Programme. The objective of the Swarm mission is to provide the best ever survey of the geomagnetic field and its temporal evolution. The Mission shall deliver data that allow access to new insights into the Earth system by improving our understanding of the Earth's interior and climate. The mission is nominally scheduled for launch in 2010. After release from a single launcher, a side-by-side flying slowly decaying lower pair of satellites will be released at an initial altitude of about 490 km together with a third satellite that will be lifted to 530 km to complete the Swarm constellation. High-precision and high-resolution measurements of the strength, direction and variation of the magnetic field, complemented by precise navigation, accelerometer and electric field measurements, will provide the observations that are required to separate and model various sources of the geomagnetic field. At present the project is in the development phase. The current project status, planned products and performances, and on-going scientific studies will be given special attention during the presentation. There will also be outlook to the next planned Swarm workshop.