1 research outputs found
Space weather opportunities from the Swarm mission including near real time applications
Sophisticated space weather monitoring aims at nowcasting and predicting solar-terrestrial interactions because
their effects on the ionosphere and upper atmosphere may seriously impact advanced technology. Operating
alert infrastructures rely heavily on ground-based measurements and satellite observations of the solar
and interplanetary conditions. New opportunities lie in the implementation of in-situ observations of the ionosphere
and upper atmosphere onboard low Earth orbiting (LEO) satellites. The multi-satellite mission Swarm is
equipped with several instruments which will observe electromagnetic and atmospheric parameters of the near
Earth space environment. Taking advantage of the multi-disciplinary measurements and the mission constellation
different Swarm products have been defined or demonstrate great potential for further development of novel
space weather products. Examples are satellite based magnetic indices monitoring effects of the magnetospheric
ring current or the polar electrojet, polar maps of ionospheric conductance and plasma convection, indicators of
energy deposition like Poynting flux, or the prediction of post sunset equatorial plasma irregularities. Providing
these products in timely manner will add significant value in monitoring present space weather and helping to
predict the evolution of several magnetic and ionospheric events. Swarm will be a demonstrator mission for the
valuable application of LEO satellite observations for space weather monitoring tools