A new space weather variation hazard index, developed by BGS (British Geological Survey) researchers using data from the European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) Swarm satellite constellation, is providing a near-real-time, global picture of geomagnetic variations to spot the local effects of space weather.
Space weather can pose significant hazards to satellites and Earth-based technologies. Strong geomagnetic activity can disrupt infrastructure and technology, including global navigation satellite systems, telecommunications, and power grids.
ESA’s three Swarm satellites measure changes in Earth’s magnetic field from space and can capture geomagnetic anomalies related to space weather worldwide. While they do not offer the continuous time coverage at a single location that a ground station can offer, the trio’s global coverage provides our best-ever survey of Earth’s magnetic field.
Until recently, the data processing pipeline meant that Swarm data was only made available after four days, preventing its use in space weather hazard monitoring. That all changed in 2024 with the introduction of a FAST data processing chain, which makes much of the mission’s data available in close to near-real time – as quickly as three hours after measurement.
Lauren Orr and colleagues at the BGS developed the new space weather hazard variation index, which draws on over ten years of Swarm data. Using the mission’s long-term record of Earth’s geomagnetic field as a baseline, it is possible to spot sudden variations that depart strongly from the normal level of variation.
Lauren, space weather scientist at BGS, said: “All space weather scientists want real-time, global geomagnetic field data. Swarm data isn’t quite real time yet, but it’s getting closer. We wanted to make sure the techniques were available to make use of the FAST data so that it would be available to space weather scientists in the future.
“A big geomagnetic storm might be obvious, but if there was just a little blip over the Atlantic Ocean, and perhaps some aircraft was struggling to communicate, we could use this index to check if there was something more localised that could explain the drop in communications.”
Anja Strømme, Swarm Mission Manager, said: “Space weather monitoring is precisely the sort of application we had in mind for Swarm FAST data, and it is wonderful to see it being used so effectively. It’s another great example of the applications and benefits the Earth Explorer satellites bring to Europe and the rest of the world.”