ESA field-aligned currents:methodology inter-comparison exercise

Authors :: Trenchi, L. (Lorenzo)
T. F. (The FAC-MICE Team)
Kauristie, K. (K.)
Käki, S. (S.)
Vanhamäki, H. (Heikki)
Juusola, L. (L.)
Blagau, A. (Adrian)
Vogt, J. (Joachim)
Marghitu, O. (Octav)
Dunlop, M. W. (M. W.)
Yang, Y.-Y. (Y.-Y.)
Yang, J.-Y. (J.-Y.)
Lühr, H. (Hermann)
Kervalishvili, G. (Guram)
Rauberg, J. (Jan)
Stolle, C. (Claudia)
Pakhotin, I. P. (Ivan P.)
Mann, I. R. (Ian R.)
Forsyth, C. (C.)
Rae, I. J. (I. J.)
Wu, J. (Jiashu)
Gjerloev, J. (J.)
Ohtani, S. (S.)
Friel, M. (M.)
Publication Year :: 2020
Publisher :: Springer Nature, 2020.
Abstract: Various ESA projects and several proposals to first Swarm DISC Call for Ideas (May 2016) suggested possible evolution for the current Swarm Level 2 FAC products, and the implementation of quality flags for the FAC products. The Field-Aligned Currents—Methodology Inter-Comparison Exercise (FAC-MICE) consisted in comparison of the various methods to determine the FAC from Swarm data, with a test dataset of 28 Swarm auroral crossings delivered to participants last June. Eight groups performed the FAC-MICE analysis. The results of this exercise, discussed in the dedicated ‘Swarm Ionospheric Currents Products workshop’ in ESTEC on September 2017, highlighted the strengths of the various methods/approaches. Following discussion with the participants to this workshop, we are now working to develop an open source platform for user-definable FAC calculation.

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