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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This is a time-lapse movie of some of the first ion images observed by Swarm’s electric field instrument. Spanning more than an orbit, the images in this movie demonstrate the capability of the instrument to operate under a wide range of plasma conditions. It provides ion velocity and temperature, roughly represented by the position and width of the ion spot in each panel. Motion of this spot reveals ion flow and electric field variability, and increases in the spot width represent heating of ions. Taken together, the horizontal and vertical sensors provide a basis for measuring 3D ion drift, which can be combined with magnetic field information to obtain values of the electric field in the ionosphere.