The first cluster and double star symposium

Abstract

Cluster, a joint project between the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA, is the first mission that is composed of four spacecraft flying in formation, and thus the first able to separate spatial and temporal features inside smallscale plasma structures within, and the boundaries between, many regions of the Earth's upper atmosphere (from 19,000–119,000 kilometers altitude).During the past two years, the Cluster mission has been enhanced by the Double Star (DSP) mission, a magnetospheric mission composed of two satellites that is a joint project between the China National Space Administration (CNSA) and ESA.The orbits have been chosen so that interesting conjunctions occur frequently between Cluster and the two DSP satellites. Conducting coordinated studies using simultaneous Cluster and Double Star observations increases the overall scientific return from both missions.