Over a decade of data has been gathered in ESA's Cluster Science Archive (CSA) – a state-of-the-art electronic store that contains processed and validated measurements collected by the four Cluster spacecraft. This information system includes data collected by ground-based radars and magnetometers, as well as spacecraft images of the auroras.

The EU-funded ECLAT project has developed tools which enable scientists to both plot the data and compare it with relative ease. In particular, a set of algorithms or rules, based on plasma and magnetic field observations by Cluster spacecraft during orbit, has yielded the location of the boundaries in the magnetosphere. The tools have also led to the discovery of phenomena such as waves in the magnetotail (the narrow part of the magnetosphere that extends away from the sun).

In addition, the team developed easy-to-use data that provides insights into about the shape of the magnetic field and how it connects Cluster spacecraft to other areas in the magnetosphere.

The findings are helping scientists better understand hostile space weather, which is caused by solar activity. This newfound knowledge is resulting in more accurate weather forecasting, and in turn helping to protect European satellite and ground-based infrastructures.

“The main aim of ECLAT is to help the work of scientists so that they can get as much as possible from their data,” says project coordinator Steve Milan, from the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom. “The open-access resource we now have goes beyond anything currently available in the space plasma physics community.”

Better forecasting

Thanks to ECLAT, researchers can now study specific moving regions and phenomena in targeted areas of the magnetosphere. The resource also helps researchers to perform statistical analyses of the changing locations and characteristics of these regions under different magnetospheric conditions.

ECLAT scientists also used the information about solar wind conditions to develop a detailed real-time 3D model of the Earth's magnetosphere to compare with the Cluster observations.

A spider's web

ESA's Cluster mission has until now only studied plasma phenomena in its immediate vicinity, such as the auroras. “The general idea is to eventually turn the Cluster mission into a spider sitting in the middle of its web, studying the entire magnetosphere,” says Milan.

While this research project has now ended, “scientific exploitation of the data will continue into the future,” says Milan.