Satellite missions

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Low Earth Orbit

A summary of near-Earth spacecraft carrying high quality magnetometers. For more info, see e.g. Olsen & Stolle, 2012. The focus here is on satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) that produced data suitable for geomagnetic field modelling, though these satellites typically also carry instruments that measure the electric field and plasma environment.

Mission name Years Description Data access
POGO 1965-1971 [NASA] “Polar Orbiting Geophysical Observatories” (OGO-2,4,6) DTU
Magsat 1979-1980 [NASA] First “high accuracy” vector magnetometry in space DTU, NASA
Ørsted 1999-2014 Led by what is now DTU Space DTU
CHAMP 2000-2010 Led by GFZ & DLR GFZ, VirES
SAC-C 2001-2004 Led by CONAE & NASA DTU
Swarm 2013-… ESA Earth Explorer constellation ESA / VirES
CSES 2018-… China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellites (CSES-01/ZH-01, CSES-2/ZH-02) Leos / MEM
MSS 2023-… Macau Science Satellites (MSS-1A; MSS-2A, MSS-2B) MSS Data Centre
NMS 2027-… NanoMagsat ESA Scout Mission - three cubesats implemented by Open Cosmos & IPGP nanomagsat.eu
MagQuest ?? Competition with three cubesat solutions  

Swarm

Schematic of a Swarm spacecraft (view in 3D): Swarm spacecraft Image credit: ESA

The Swarm mission creates many data products and models - explore more in the Swarm product handbook.

NB: Three Swarm spacecraft are also joined by calibrated platform magnetometer data from other missions: CryoSat, GRACE, GRACE-FO, Aeolus. For data access see, for example, “Multi-mission MAG” notebook.

Multi-mission synergy

Swarm patch NMS patch MSS patch

Swarm, NMS, and MMS are working closely together. Joint meetings are announced on the Swarm DISC website.