UCalgary scientists develop Swarm Electric to measure magnetic signals from Earth

Swarm Electric Field Instrument

University of Calgary space scientists have a leading role in a triple-satellite mission to better understand Earth’s magnetic field, including why the planet’s protective “shield” against cosmic radiation is weakening.

The university is the lead scientific institution for the European Space Agency Swarm mission’s “Electric Field Instrument,” a key instrument aboard each of Swarm’s three satellites.

Scientists in the Department of Physics and Astronomy also contributed to the initial design, in-flight software and final testing for a space plasma imager, one of the instrument’s crucial components.

“We’re the only university in Canada that builds and flies space plasma (charged particles) instrumentation,” says David Knudsen, professor of physics and astronomy in the Faculty of Science and lead scientist for Swarm’s Electric Field Instrument.

“We invented the thermal-ion imager that will be flying on the Swarm satellites, built the prototypes on campus and flew them on sub-orbital routes over the last two decades,” he says.

Scheduled for launch in late November, the Swarm mission will measure with unprecedented precision the magnetic signals from Earth’s core, mantle, crust and oceans, as well as in the ionosphere and magnetosphere surrounding the planet.

Swarm’s three identical satellites, built by European space company Astrium, each carry a total of three different instruments designed to also distinguish between global and regional effects of different sources of magnetism.

The Electric Field Instrument, positioned at the front of each satellite, measures the ionospheric winds, temperatures and density about 500 kilometres above Earth.

Space firm COM DEV Canada in Ontario built the Swarm mission’s inflight thermal-ion imagers – two per satellite – that will provide a high-resolution, 3D picture of the ion flow around the planet.

With Swarm’s polar-orbiting satellites making continuous measurements for at least four years, “we’ll be able to put together a picture of the electro-dynamics of the upper atmosphere around the entire planet,” Knudsen says.

The University of Calgary, with support from the Canadian Space Agency, will be processing Swarm data particularly to characterize that part of Earth’s magnetic field contributed by the aurora borealis or Northern Lights.

Swarm’s trapezoidal satellites, with long trailing booms once deployed in orbit, look like large mechanical insects. All three will be launched in one “Rockot,” a converted SS-19 intercontinental ballistic missile, from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia.

In addition to understanding the basic science of near-Earth space, potential applications from the Swarm mission include: improving the accuracy of navigation systems; making directional oil and gas drilling (which “steers” by the geomagnetic field) more efficient; and advancing understanding of the long-term stability of continental ice caps.

The University of Calgary has developed more than 20 instruments for space missions since 1970, including seven for three separate satellite missions this year alone, Knudsen notes.

“No other university in Canada has that record,” he says. “I’d say we’re a global player in space science.”