Abstract
Swarm, a three-satellite constellation to study the dynamics of the Earth’s magnetic field and its interactions with the Earth system, is expected to be launched in late 2013. The objective of the Swarm mission is to provide the best ever survey of the geomagnetic field and its temporal evolution, in order to gain new insights into the Earth system by improving our understanding of the Earth’s interior and environment. In order to derive advanced models of the geomagnetic field (and other higher-level data products) it is necessary to take explicit advantage of the constellation aspect of Swarm. The Swarm SCARF (SatelliteConstellationApplication andResearchFacility) has been established with the goal of deriving Level-2 products by combination of data from the three satellites, and of the various instruments. The present paper describes the Swarm input data products (Level-1b and auxiliary data) used by SCARF, the various processing chains of SCARF, and the Level-2 output data products determined by SCARF.
Highlights
Swarm, a constellation mission comprising three identical satellites to study the dynamics of the Earth’s magnetic field and its interactions with the Earth system (FriisChristensen et al, 2006, 2008) is expected to be launched in late 2013
The research objectives assigned to the mission are: (a) studies of core dynamics, geodynamo processes, and core-mantle interaction; (b) mapping of the lithospheric magnetisation and its geological interpretation; (c) determination of the 3-D electrical conductivity of the mantle; and (d) investigation of electric currents flowing in the magnetosphere and ionosphere
In recognition of the large effort needed to extract the various types of scientific information from the complex set of observations a group of institutions and organisations have joined the SMART consortium (Swarm Magnetic and Atmospheric Research Team)
Summary
A constellation mission comprising three identical satellites to study the dynamics of the Earth’s magnetic field and its interactions with the Earth system (FriisChristensen et al, 2006, 2008) is expected to be launched in late 2013. The team behind SCARF has designed and implemented algorithms to derive advanced models of the geomagnetic field describing sources in the core, lithosphere, ionosphere and magnetosphere, models of the electrical conductivity of Earth’s mantle and time series of thermospheric wind and density at the positions of the Swarm satellites. Time-series of spherical harmonic expansion coefficients of the large-scale magnetospheric field and its Earth-induced counterpart are provided in the Level-2 product of generic name MMA SHA 2. Further details of the results of the closed-loop modelling tests to check each chain meets the performance requirements can be found in the respective references and papers in this volume
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