The mission

ESA’s three-satellite Swarm mission is dedicated to unravelling one of the most mysterious aspects of our planet: the magnetic field. Although invisible, the magnetic field and electric currents in and around Earth generate complex forces that have immeasurable impact on everyday life. By analysing the different characteristics of the observed field, Swarm will lead to new insight into many natural processes, from those occurring deep inside the planet to weather in space caused by solar activity.

The launch

Date: 22 November 2013

Site: Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia

Launcher: Rockot

1st Explorer constellation

3 identical satellites

1st sensors of their kind

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[ Swarm ]

ARCHIVIERTER INHALT: 11 DEZ. 2025

Swarm detects rare proton spike during solar storm

The European Space Agency’s Swarm mission detected a large but temporary spike of high-energy protons at Earth’s poles during a geomagnetic storm in November. It did this not with the scientific instruments for measuring Earth’s magnetic field, but with its ‘star tracker’ positioning instruments – a first for the Swarm mission.

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[ Swarm ]

ARCHIVIERTER INHALT: 13 OKT. 2025

Swarm reveals growing weak spot in Earth’s magnetic field

Using 11 years of magnetic field measurements from the European Space Agency’s Swarm satellite constellation, scientists have discovered that the weak region in Earth’s magnetic field over the South Atlantic – known as the South Atlantic Anomaly – has expanded by an area nearly half the size of continental Europe since 2014.

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[ Swarm ]

ARCHIVIERTER INHALT: 27 JUN. 2025

Swarm in tune with atmospheric hot flushes

Scientists are harnessing data from ESA’s Swarm mission and ground-based instruments to precisely measure the strength and duration of intense upper-atmosphere heating – dramatic ‘hot flushes’ triggered by solar storms that also cause Earth’s tenuous outer atmospheric layers to expand rapidly.This research, funded by ESA's Earth Observation FutureEO Science for Society initiative, offers crucial insights into how geomagnetic activity affects satellite orbits and space weather conditions.

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[ Swarm ]

ARCHIVIERTER INHALT: 22 JAN. 2025

Swarm detects tidal signatures of our oceans

A study using data from ESA’s Swarm mission suggests that faint magnetic signatures created by Earth’s tides can help us determine magma distribution under the seabed and could even give us insights into long-term trends in global ocean temperatures and salinity.

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