Originally published on November 27, 2013
The European Space Agency's (ESA) Swarm mission to explore the Earth's magnetic field was launched from Russia on November 22. The three satellites left the Plesetsk Cosmodrome spaceport at 12:02 GMT.
The four-year mission will provide data to improve scientists' understanding of the evolution and structure of Earth's magnetic, which appears to be weakening. The data will help scientists to distinguish the various sources of magnetic field, including the Earth's core, mantle, crust and oceans and the ionosphere and magnetosphere.
Two satellites will orbit almost side-by-side, at an initial altitude of 460 km before descending to around 300 km over the life of the mission. The third will drift away until it crosses the path of the two other craft at an angle of 90° at a higher orbit of 530 km. The difference in orbits should allow the satellites to capture all magnetic signals originating from Earth and those caused by the solar wind.
The Earth's magnetic field has lost about 15% of its strength over the last 150 years. For example, the South Atlantic Anomaly has a particularly weak magnetic field, which is only half as strong as over Europe. Furthermore, the magnetic north pole was moving at about 10 km a year before 1994, but the rate has increased to around 65 km a year since 2001.
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