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Abstract

In order to provide the best ever survey of the geomagnetic field and its temporal evolution ESA is planning a constellation mission of three satellites. The Swarm mission, as one of the Earth Explorer Missions within the Living Planet Programme, will provide new insights into the processes that generate the various parts of the magnetic field in and near the Earth. The satellites will monitor with high resolution the scalar and vector magnetic field, the electric field, plasma density, electron /ion temperature, air density and thermospheric winds. These observations, and the derivation of field models, play also an important role in predicting space weather activity within the near-Earth environment. The German Swarm Project Office was initiated to distribute information about this mission and its wide application spectrum. It acts as an interface of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) to ESA and the main contractor EADS Astrium (Friedrichshafen) . The Project Office will coordinate the scientific and technical use of the expected results at German companies and research institutions as part of a comprehensive concept for Swarm data exploitation. The home page of the Swarm Project Office is www.swarm-projektbuero.de. The Swarm Project Office at GFZ is sponsored by the Federal Republic of Germany, Initiator: German Space Agency of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) through funds of the German Federal M inistry of Economics and Technology based on a decision of the German Federal Parliament (FKZ 50EE0916).