Ten Years of Low-Earth Orbit Observations from CASSIOPE/Swarm-Echo

From the vantage point of an elliptic, polar, low-earth orbit (81o inclination, 325 km x 1500 km initial apogee/perigee), CASSIOPE/Swarm-Echo has been observing the ionosphere-thermosphere system for over ten years. The Enhanced Polar Outflow Probe (e-POP) payload onboard collects data on space weather and related phenomena, including measurements of the local magnetic field, low-energy ion and electron energy distributions, high-frequency radio waves (natural and man-made), GPS signals, and aurora. These observations from a non-sun-synchronous orbit over a range of altitudes constitutes a unique data set that allows for investigation of the earth’s magnetic field and related current systems, upper atmospheric dynamics, auroral dynamics, and related coupling processes among the magnetosphere, ionosphere, thermosphere, and plasmasphere. This presentation will highlight the discoveries of the ten years of e-POP operation, including recent work on plasma waves generated by moving charged space objects and machine-learning techniques applied to analysis of magnetic field data and auroral images. We will also present some of the new Swarm-Echo data products and system tools available for use and look at the future direction of both the mission and the evolving data set.