The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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Early on in the mission, each of the three Swarm satellites’ magnetometers was run temporarily in a higher frequency mode than normal. Data from this time have been reanalysed and revealed that, surprisingly, the instruments detected these waves. Converted into sound, they are known as whistlers. The whoosh of these lightning whistlers can be heard in the animation. Although few whistlers at such unusual frequencies have been measured from space before, Swarm detected some 4000 in just four days, which is a particularly rich dataset. This provides a unique opportunity to investigate the nature of the ionosphere and also see how lightning signals escape the atmosphere and propagate into space.