• ESA uses cookies to track visits to our website only, no personal information is collected.
    By continuing to use the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies. OK
    Find out more about our cookie policy.
    • → European Space Agency

    • About Science & Technology

    • For Public

    • For Educators

    • ESA

    • Science & Technology

    • Cluster

    • Missions
    • Show All Missions
    • Mission Home
    • Summary
    • Fact Sheet
    • Objectives
    • Mission Team
    • Background Science
    • Earth's Magnetic Field
    • Plasma Regions
    • Solar Wind
    • Energetic Particles
    • Space Weather
    • Science Results
    • What Cluster has taught us so far
    • Highlights
    • Refereed Publications
    • Spacecraft…

      • Spacecraft
      • 3D Model
      • Instruments
      • Engineering
    • Mission Operations…

      • Mission Operations
      • Launch Vehicle
      • Launch Campaign
      • Orbit/Navigation
      • Mission Timeline
    • Science Operations
    • Science Operations
    • Guest Investigator Operations
    • JSOC
    • CSDS
    • Cluster Active Archive
    • Cluster Science Archive
    • Resources
    • News Archive
    • Multimedia Gallery
    • Publication Archive
    • Calendar of Events
    • Services
    • Contact Us
    • Subscribe
    • RSS feed
    • Terms and Conditions

    The Cluster Mission: Space Plasma in Three Dimensions

    Publication date: 04 December 2009

    Authors: Taylor, M.G.G.T. et al.

    Page: 309-330
    Year: 2009

    Copyright: Springer

    In the book "The Cluster Active Archive - Studying the Earth's Space Plasma Environment", Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings, H. Laakso et al. (eds.), ISBN 978-90-481-3498-4 (Print) 978-90-481-3499-1 (Online), Springer, 2010

    Part of original abstract follows:
    At the time of writing, Cluster is approaching 8 years of successful operation and continues to fulfill, if not exceed its scientific objectives. After a nominal mission lifetime of 2 years Cluster currently in its extended mission phase, up to June 2009, with a further extension request submitted for a further 3.5 years. The primary goals of the Cluster mission include three-dimensional studies of small-scale plasma structures and turbulence in the key plasma regions in the Earth's environment: solar wind and bow shock, magnetopause, polar cusps, magnetotail, and auroral zone. During the course of the mission, the relative distance between the four spacecraft is being varied to form a nearly perfect tetrahedral configuration at 100, 250, 600, 2,000, 5,000 and 10,000 km inter-spacecraft separation targeted to study scientifically interesting regions at different scales. In the last few years, the constellation strategy has moved towards a multi-scale concept, enabling two scale sizes to be investigated at the same time. In these cases, three spacecraft are separated by 10,000 km with the last spacecraft separated from this plane by varying distances from 16 km up to several 1,000 km. In this paper, we provide a brief overview of the mission concept and implementation and highlight a number of Cluster's latest science results, which include: the first observation of three dimensional (3-D) surface waves on the bow shock, the first 3-D analysis of turbulence in the magnetosheath, the discovery of magnetosonic waves accelerating electrons to MeV energies in the radiation belts, along with a number of discoveries involving magnetic reconnection.

    Link to Publication

    Last Update: 12 February 2010

    • Shortcut URL
    • http://sci.esa.int/jump.cfm?oid=46485
    • Related Publications
    • The Cluster Active Archive [Springer Book]
    • See Also
    • Cluster Active Archive

    Connect with us

    • RSS
    • Youtube
    • Twitter
    •  Flickr
    • Google+
    • Livestream
    • Subscribe
    • Appstore
    • Twitter-2

    Follow ESA science