Technology Requirements

• Autonomous operation
• Advanced data retrieval system
• Micro-satellite technology
• Li-metal batteries
• Solar electric propulsion system

Societal Benefits

• Substorm onset predictions
• Quantitative energy release estimates
• Predictions of geomagnetic hazards

• Resolve spatio-temporal ambiguities
• Visualize the invisible dynamic magnetosphere
• Investigate substorm onset and recovery
• Understand filamentation of auroral currents
• Map magnetospheric flows
• Trace current systems and mapping
• Magnetopause energy and flux transfer

Mission Description

• Multiple autonomous satellites (10 to 500.)
• Small, focused particles and fields payload
• Low-cost approach
• Several possible deployment strategies
• Both high-altitude missions (to address magnetospheric processes) and low-altitude missions (to address auroral physics)

Measurement Strategy

• Particles and fields at modest temporal resolution
• Store data and relay in bursts
• Multisatellite measurements allow calculation of distributed current systems