ESA releases SWARM data to the public
22.05. 2014| Frascati: ESA announces the release of the first set of data products obtained by the three SWARM satellites. The German SWARM Project Office at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences initiates the scientific and technical exploration of SWARM measurements by German research institutes. “We are pleased that the data are available now” comments Prof. Reinhard Hüttl, Scientific Executive Director of the GFZ. “The SWARM user community is active in the field of geomagnetics and geodesy  - even outside the GFZ - at many German institutes and universities. The SWARM Project office provides information about SWARM data to the users. Thus, the scientific evaluation can start.”

After successful calibration, magnetometer data, attitude and orbit data of the satellites are immediately available to the public. Professor Claudia Stolle, Head of Section “Earth’s Magnetic Field” at the GFZ is glad: “Once the first datasets are published we expect the continuous release of further data, for example measurements of the Electric Field Instrument (EFI) onboard SWARM. Processed data products from the constellation of the three SWARM satellites in orbit, such as magnetic field models and data about field aligned currents, are expected to follow in the near future.”

The SWARM mission was launched November 22, 2013. After arrival of the satellites in orbit the instruments onboard were switched on and tested. The quality of the data was then assessed. Researchers at the GFZ were involved in this calibration and validation of SWARM data. SWARM data and data products are used at several German universities and institutes to explore Earth’s magnetic and gravity field as well as to investigate near-Earth space. Further information on the SWARM mission and -orbits can be found on the websites of the German SWARM Project Office (www.swarm-projektbuero.de).

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