Swarm: User Interface & Data Access
Plank, Gernot1; Ciccarelli, Massimiliano2; Coco, Igino2; Costa, Gabriella2; Dilodovico, Ivan2; Floberghagen, Rune2; Lopes, Cristiano2; Martini, Annalisa2; Mattia, Stefano2; Ottavianelli, Giuseppe2
1ESA / ESTEC, NETHERLANDS; 2ESA / Esrin, ITALY

Swarm is the fifth Earth Explorer mission in ESA's Living Planet Programme, and is scheduled for launch in 2013. The objective of the Swarm mission is to provide the best-ever survey of the geomagnetic field and its temporal evolution using a constellation of 3 identical satellites. The Mission shall deliver data that allow access to new insights into the Earth system by improved scientific understanding of the Earth's interior and near-Earth electromagnetic environment. After launch and triple satellite release at an initial altitude of about 490 km, a pair of the satellites will fly side-by-side with slowly decaying altitude, while the third satellite will be lifted to 530 km to complete the Swarm constellation. High-precision and high-resolution measurements of the strength, direction and variation of the magnetic field, complemented by precise navigation, accelerometer and electric field measurements, will provide the observations required to separate and model various sources of the geomagnetic field and near-Earth current systems. The mission science goals are to provide a unique view into Earth's core dynamics, mantle conductivity, crustal magnetisation, ionospheric and magnetospheric current systems and upper atmosphere dynamics - ranging from understanding the geodynamo to contributing to space weather. The presentation will focus on two key aspects of the mission during the operational phase: (a) The plans of the Agency for the provision of Swarm data (L1b and L2) to the user community, and (b) the information flow and interface between the general user community and ESA.