Science

Swarm C

Catalogued as SWARM C

Geomagnetic Field Mapping · ESA

The third member of ESA's Swarm trio, flying alongside Swarm A at low altitude while Swarm B orbits higher. Swarm C's measurements, combined with its partners', have disentangled the multiple sources of Earth's magnetic field — the planet's core, the crust, the oceans, the ionosphere, and the magnetosphere all contribute, and separating them has been a decades-long challenge. Swarm is now detecting subtle magnetic signals from saltwater oceans moving with the tides.