SCARF - The Swarm Satellite Constellation Application and Research Facility
Olsen, Nils¹; Alken, Patrick²; Beggan, Ciaran³; Chulliat, Arnaud⁴; Doornbos, Eelco⁵; Floberghagen, Rune⁶; Friis-Christensen, Eigil¹; Hamilton, Brian³; Hulot, Gauthier⁴; van den IJssel, Jose⁵; Kuvshinov, Alexey⁷; Lesur, Vincent⁸; Luehr, Hermann⁸; Macmillan, Susan³; Maus, Stefan⁹; Olsen, Poul Erik H¹; Park, Jaeheung⁸; Plank, Gernot¹⁰; Ritter, Patricia⁸; Rother, Martin⁸; Sabaka, Terence J¹¹; Stolle, Claudia¹; Thebault, Erwan⁴; Thomson, Alan W P³; Toffner-Clausen, Lars¹; Velimsky, Jakub¹²; Visser, Pieter N⁵; Puethe, Christoph⁷; Encarnacao, Joao^5
1DTU Space, DENMARK; ²IPG Paris and NOAA (Boulder), FRANCE; ³BGS, UNITED KINGDOM; ⁴IPG Paris, FRANCE; ⁵TU Delft, NETHERLANDS; ⁶ESRIN, ITALY; ⁷ETH Zurich, SWITZERLAND; ⁸GFZ Potsdam, GERMANY; ⁹NOAA, UNITED STATES; ¹⁰ESTEC, NETHERLANDS; ¹¹GSFC/NASA, UNITED STATES; ¹²Charles University, CZECH REPUBLIC

In order to take advantage of the unique constellation aspect of the Swarm mission, considerably advanced data analysis tools will need to be developed. Scientific use of data from the Swarm mission will also benefit significantly from derived products, the so-called Level-2 products, that take into account the features of the constellation. For this reason ESA has established a ''Satellite Constellation Application and Research Facility'' (SCARF), in the form of a consortium of several research institutions.

A number of Level-2 data products will be offered by this consortium, including various models of the core and lithospheric field, as well as of the ionospheric and magnetospheric field. In addition, derived parameters like mantle conductivity, thermospheric mass density and winds, field-aligned currents, an ionospheric plasma bubble index, the ionospheric total electron content and the dayside equatorial zonal electrical field will be calculated. Following the end of the currently running 30-month development phase, this service is expected to be operational for a period of 5 years after the launch of the Swarm Mission, which is scheduled for the seciond half of 2013.